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Horton,  Robert  F.  1855-193 

Verbum  Dei 


VERBUM    DEI 


BY   THE    SAME   AUTHOR. 


Large  crown  8vo,  cloth,  $2.00. 
REVELATION    AND   THE    BIBLE. 

"  Mr.  Horton  is  both  interesting  and  instructive  in  his  careful 
and  luminous  exposition."  —  Daily  Telegraph. 


MACMILLAN   AND   CO.,  NEW  YORK. 


*^ 


VERBUM   DEI 

THE 

YALE  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING,   1893 


BY 

V 

ROBERT    F.    HORTON,    M.A. 

{Sometime  Fellow  of  New  Coll.,  Oxford) 

AUTHOR  OF  "  REVELATION  AND  THE  BIBLE,"  ETC. 


Eine  Religion  welche  sich  noch  entwickelt  hat  Propheten, 
eine  voUendete  nur  Schriftgelehrte 

Hermann  Schultz 


MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

AND     LONDON 

1893 
All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 


Knrtoooli  ^Prrss : 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith. 

Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


JBetitcation 


TO    MY    BELOVED    FRIEND 

R.  O. 

WHO   THROUGH    MANY    CHANGEFUL   YEARS    HAS 
BY    god's   GRACE 

kept  high  and  clear  before  me  the  ideal  of  the 

preacher's  calling 

i,  with  reverence  equal  to  affection 

inscribe  this 

BOOK 


PREFACE 


When  the  invitation  came  to  me  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  and  deHver  the  Lyjnan  BeecJier  Lecture  on 
Preaching,  I  at  once  accepted  it,  because,  conscious 
as  I  was  of  my  unworthiness  to  stand  in  the  hon- 
ourable succession  of  the  Yale  Lecturers,  I  felt  that 
there  is  a  mode  of  conceiving  the  Christian  Ministry 
which  is  not  sufficiently  recognised  even  by  preach- 
ers themselves.  The  general  contempt  into  which 
preaching  has  fallen  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
where  the  Established  Church  promises  before  long 
to  thrust  the  sermon  into  a  corner,  or  even  outside 
the  precincts,  of  its  sacerdotal  shrines,  and  where 
the  other  Churches  are  strongly  tempted  to  secular- 
ise the  pulpit,  is,  it  seems  to  me,  due  to  the  decay  of 
that  conception  of  preaching  which  is  presented  in 
these  lectures.     This  must  be  the  excuse  for  adding 


8  PREFACE. 

another  book  to  the  ever-widening  tide  of  passing 
literature.  The  audience  of  the  Yale  Divinity  School 
is  important,  but  the  author  would  cherish  the  hope 
of  speaking  to  preachers  who  are  already  engaged  in 
their  life-work,  and  of  quickening  in  some  of  them 
the  sense  of  their  Divine  commission.  He  would 
pray  that  this  little  volume  may  come  to  his  brothers 
in  the  ministry  with  a  genuine  message  from  God. 

ROBERT   F.    HORTON. 

Hampstead,  February,  1893. 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Theme  .         .         .         .         .         .  -13 

11.  "The  Word  of  the  Lord  came"         .  .       45 

III.  The  Word  in  the   New  Testament      .  .       77 

IV.  The  Bible  and  the  Word  of  God       .  .109 
V.  The  Word  of  God  outside  the  Bible  .     141 

VL  On  Receiving  the  Word      .         .         .  -173 

VII.  The  Logos    .......     205 

VIII.  The  Preacher's  Personality         .         .  .     239 

IX.  Methods  and  Modes    .         .         «        .  .271 

9 


Soul,  rule  thyself.     On  passion,  deed,  desire, 

Lay  thou  the  laws  of  thy  deliberate  will. 

Stand  at  thy  chosen  post,  faith's  sentinel : 
Though  Hell's  lost  legions  ring  thee  round  with  fire. 
Learn  to  endure.     Dark  vigil  hours  shall  tire 

Thy  wakeful  eyes  ;  regrets  thy  bosom  thrill ; 

Slow  years  thy  loveless  flower  of  youth  shall  kill ; 
Yea,  thou  shalt  yearn  for  lute  and  wanton  lyre. 
Yet  is  thy  guerdon  great ;  thine  the  reward 

Of  those  elect  who,  scorning  Circe's  lure, 
Grown  early  wise,  make  living  light  their  lord. 

Clothed  with  celestial  steel,  these  walk  secure, 

Masters,  not  slaves.     Over  their  heads  the  pure 
Heavens  bow,  and  guardian  seraphs  wave  God's  sword. 

J.  A.  Symonds. 


LECTURE  I. 


LECTURE    I. 


THE    THEME. 


The  theme  which  has  to  be  handled  in  the 
present  lectures  is  not  without  its  grave  re- 
sponsibility. The  lectures  themselves  should 
be  not  only  an  exposition  of  the  argument, 
but  an  example  of  it.  The  lecturer  is  in  the 
position  of  one  who  seeks  to  expound  poetry 
by  producing  a  poem.  The  aim  is  to  show 
that  preaching  must  be  the  deliverance  of 
a  word  of  God  received__Jmmediately  from 
God ;  and  unless  these  lectures  are  such  a 
word,  received  in  such  a  way,  they  doubly 
miss  their  mark;  they  not  only  fail  as  lec- 
tures, but  they  discredit  the  high  contention 
which  they  are  intended  to  sustain. 

Need  I  say  that  I,  labouring  under  a  sense 
of  this  responsibility,  am  "  with  you  in  weak- 

13 


14  THE    THEME. 

ness,  and  in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling"?  If 
I  did  not  believe  that  I  had  a  message  to  de- 
liver I  should  not  be  here,  but  I  am  conscious 
of  the  straitening  until  the  mission  is  accom- 
plished, and  the  message  delivered ;  for  it  is^ 
one  matter  to  see  the  heavens  open,  to  be  /V^ 
aware  of  an  authentic  voice,  to  catch  the 
momentary  gleams  of  things  unspeakable  ;  and 
it  is  another  matter  to  speak  distinctly  or  even 
credibly  of  the  heavenly  vision.  Like  the 
tumultuous  recollections  of  a  dream,  a  great 
truth  seems  to  evade  us  when  we  try  to  state 
it,  and  what  appeared  to  us  as  a  revelation 
sounds  in  the  telling  like  a  truism. 

The  truth,  however,  to  be  illustrated  in  these 
lectures  is  admittedly  a  commonplace.  The 
object  is  not  to  persuade  you  to  grant  that  it 
is  a  truth ;  that  we  all  grant  even  too  easily ; 
but  rather  to  consider  how  the  conceded  truth 
of  theory  may  come  into  the  venturous  truth 
of  practice.  For  preaching,  like  other  impor- 
tant spheres  of  human  activity,  loses  its  power 
and  declines,  not  for  want  of  a  right  theory, 
nor  yet  from  defect  of  shining  examples,  but 


A    NEGLECTED    TRUISM.  1 5 

from  a  sapping  at  the  springs.  The  springs 
need  to  be  renewed  and  cleansed  that  the 
streams  may  flow  afresh. 

Let  me  take  an  illustration  from  a  lower 
plane :  In  the  sculpture  gallery  of  the  Capitol 
at  Rome  there  is  a  collection  of  busts  com- 
plete, or  nearly  complete,  of  all  the  Roman 
Emperors  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest. 
The  busts  are  for  the  most  part  the  work 
of  contemporary  artists.  It  is  a  fine  study 
to  trace  the  decay  of  the  Art  from  the  noble 
Greek  marbles  of  the  early  Caesars,  through 
the  gracious  decline  in  the  silver  age  of  the 
Antonines,  to  the  relapse  into  barbarism  in 
the  days  of  the  Gothic  Emperors.  The  sin- 
gular reflection  occurs,  that  the  sculptor  who 
chiselled  this  latest  efligy,  a  work  little  better 
than  the  crude  wooden  doll  of  a  child,  a 
caricature  of  a  human  head,  had  before  him, 
there  in  Rome,  those  consummate  examples 
from  the  great  period.  The  heir  of  all  the 
Ages  —  he  produced  this!  In  the  presence 
of  masterpieces  this  was  his  handiwork.  The 
explanation  of  such  a  decline  and  a  degrada- 


I  6  THE    THEME. 

tion  is  found  when  we  observe  the  conditions 
of  true  productiveness  in  Art.  Lifeless  imita- 
tion is  decay.  The  copy  of  the  best  models 
passes  by  insensible  gradations  into  the  pro- 
duction of  the  worst.  Art  comes  from  life. 
Invention  is  as  it  were  of  the  soil.  A  great 
period  of  Art  occurs  when  men  get  back  to 
Nature,  and  a  few  men  of  genius,  generally 
men  from  the  fresh-turned  furrows  and  the 
bare  ribs  of  the  earth,  lay  hands,  ungloved 
by  convention,  on  the  reality  of  things ;  they 
must  be  men  possessed  of  great  energy  and 
will,  for  it  is  always  difficult  to  keep  pressing 
closely  on  the  contour  and  form  of  fact.  The 
miserable  declension  of  Art,  illustrated  in  that 
gallery  of  the  Capitol,  was  due  to  the  gradual 
driftinof  of  its  ministers  from  the  sources  of 
truth  and  inspiration  into  the  servile  adoption 
of  routine. 

And  so  in  the  matter  of  preaching  the  great 
models  are  always  before  us,  and  the  lasting 
principles  of  it  are  known  and  admitted,  but 
the  secret  of  it  may  very  easily  be  lost.  It 
may  become  —  it  often   has    become  —  a  dull 


FLESH    SHRINKS.  I  7 

mechanic  exercise,  which  seems  to  the  wise 
childish  and  trivial,  and  the  more  childish 
and  trivial  because  it  affects  with  the  pompous 
make-believe  of  childishness  to  be  something 
so  much  greater,  something  even  divine. 

Let  me,  as  an  introduction  to-day,  state  in 
the  briefest  form  the  theme  that  is  to  occupy 
us,  and  draw  some  of  the  lines  on  which  the 
subsequent  lectures  will  proceed. 

Here  is  the  theme :    Every  living  preacher  i 
must  receive  his  message  in  a  communication 
direct,  from  God,  and  the  constant  purpose  of 
his  life  must  be  to  receive  it  uncorrupted,  and 
to  deliver  it  without  addition  or  subtraction. 

It  is  a  truism,  but,  I  think  you  will  all  agree, 
a  neglected  truism.  If  in  our  brief  better 
moments  we  see  it,  we  constantly  are  tempted 
to  recede  from  it.  Not  without  some  sus- 
picion of  wdiat  may  be  involved  in  unflinch- 
ingly accepting  it  as  true,  we  are  apt  to  take 
refuge  in  modifications,  compromises,  denials. 
Flesh  shrinks,  and  the  heart  cries  out.  Let 
some  one  else  go  up  the  rugged  steep  of  the 
mountain  and  see  Him  face  to  face.     Let  some 


l8  THE    THEME. 

one  else  stand  awestruck  in  the  passing  of  the 
Ahriighty.  I  will  do  some  humbler  task.  Let 
me  read  the  lessons,  or  let  me  recite  the  creed, 
or  let  me  be  a  priest,  clad  in  the  robes  of 
office  which  are  a  discharge  from  personal  fit- 
ness. On  many  grounds  and  in  many  ways 
we  disclaim  our  calling.  The  truth  remains 
as  a  truism,  but  we  dare  not  grasp  it  ourselves. 
The  world  notices  our  disclaimer,  and  accepts 
us  on  the  level  of  our  own  elected  degradation. 

It  is  a  truism ;  but  are  we  ready,  in  face  of 
what  is  involved,  to  grant  that  it  is  true  ?  The 
message  must  be  received  from  God  in  a 
djrect  communication !  The  preacher  is  in- 
deed a  Prophet.  The  full  meaning  of  this 
dawns  upon  us  as  we  look  at  the  alternatives. 
He  is  a  Prophet ;  that  is,  he  is  not  merely  a 
Reciter  or  Rhetorician ;  he  is  not  merely  a 
Lecturer  or  Philosopher;  he  is  not,  above  all 
he  is  not,  merely  a  Priest. 

I  recollect  hearing  a  famous  reciter,  who 
was  also  a  clergyman.  He  could  take  any 
passage  of  literature,  verse  or  prose,  and  by 
the  exquisite  modulation  of  voice,  the  supple 


THE    PREACHER    A    PROPHET.  1 9 

changes  of  feature,  and  the  sympathetic  appre- 
hension of  the  author's  subtlest  thousfhts  and 
suggestions,  he  could  play  upon  his  audience 
with  all  the  keyboard  of  books  at  his  com- 
mand, move  us  to  laughter  or  tears,  lead  us 
tripping  through  the  gay  parterres  of  mirth, 
or  bear  us  up  the  starry  track  to  the  heights 
beyond  us.  One  supposed  that  surely  he 
would  be  a  great  preacher.  Indeed,  what  had 
he  to  do  but  to  learn  some  noble  utterances  of 
Massillon  or  Bourdaloue,  or  to  compose  ser- 
mons of  his  own  and  deliver  them  in  the  man- 
ner of  his  recitals,  in  order  to  sweep  us  all  up- 
wards and  Godwards  as  with  a  wind  ?  But 
no,  he  was  not  a  great  preacher;  he  was  a 
great  reciter  in  the  pulpit,  that  was  all;  and 
there  were  among  his  contemporaries  men 
without  any  command  of  language  or  any  gifts 
of  the  orator  who  would  accomplish  more  in 
a  simple  address  than  he  in  all  his  eloquent 
discourses. 

It  may  be  well  to  say  at  once  that  the  noble 
gift  of  oratory  and  the  fine  art  of  elocution 
may  be  pressed  into  the  service  of  preaching. 


20  THE    THEME. 

but  they  have  to  be  watched ;  they  are  saucy 
slaves  who  with  their  castanets  and  bangles 
will  always  be  seeking  to  gain  the  upper  hand, 
superseding  their  master  and  covering  his 
absence  with  their  noise  and  sparkle.  A  good 
voice  is  invaluable  if  God  speaks  through  it. 
A  commanding  presence  is  a  great  help  if 
God's  presence  commands  it.  The  rich  flow 
of  language  may  be  fertilising  as  well  as 
charming  if  the  tide  of  God  is  in  it.  But  the 
preacher  is  not  a  Reciter  or  an  Orator.  His 
purpose,  his  power,  his  practice,  are  quite 
independent  of  these  accomplishments. 

Again,  the  Preacher  is  not  a  Lecturer  or  a 
Philosopher.  There  is  the  broad  distinction 
between  Hellas  and  Israel,  the  nation  of 
culture  and  the  people  of  revelation.  In 
cultivated  nations  whose  culture  rests  on  the 
study  of  the  Classics,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
our  teachers  constantly  show  a  tendency  to 
imitate  Hellenic  or  Latin  models,  to  walk  in 
the  Porch  or  the  Garden  with  the  broad- 
browed  thinkers  of  Athens,  or  to  move  in  the 
stately  periods   of  the   rostra  or  the   C2iria  of 


NOT    A    LECTURER.  2  1 

Rome.  In  this  way  many  preachers  have  been 
misled,  and,  painful  as  it  is  to  say  so, 

m 

Divine  Philosophy 
Has  pushed  beyond  its  mark  to  be 
Procuress  of  the  lords  of  hell. 

The  Philosopher  has  a  sphere  of  his  own,  but 
it  is  not  the  preacher's.  He  is  committed  to 
the  search  for  Truth  in  devious  ways.  He 
is  bound  to  pass  through  "  sunless  gulfs  of 
doubt "  if  he  is  to  touch  the  sunny  shore.  His 
conclusions  are  reached  by  the  slow  accumu- 
lations of  the  Ages,  he  is  the  spectator  of  all 
time  and  of  all  existence,  and  what  he  sees 
is  precious  to  the  world,  but  ''  the  world  by 
wisdom  knows  not  God."  Philosophy  is  not 
equal  to  the  grand  assay  of  understanding 
Him,  still  less  is  it  authorised  to  speak  as  His 
mouthpiece. 

The  Lecturer  has  a  sphere  of  his  own,  but 
it  is  not  the  preacher's.  He  can  by  study,  by 
reading,  by  observation,  and  by  using  the  arts 
of  right  reasoning,  clear  ordering,  and  pleas- 
ing enunciation,  give  the  results  of  his  labour 


22  THE    THEME. 

to  those  who  will  hear.  His  function  is  epit- 
ome. He  is  the  retailer  to  busy  men  of  the 
goods  which  lie  in  the  great  wharves  and 
warehouses  of  knowledge.  The  lecturer  may 
under  inspiration  become  a  preacher,  but  woe 
to  the  preacher  if  under  some  sinister  in- 
fluences he  becomes  merely  a  lecturer.  He 
will  not  have  staying  power.  An  encyclo- 
paedia is  exhausted  in  time,  and  long  before 
it  is  exhausted  the  hearers  are  exhausted  with 
receiving  it.  The  world  rightly  declines  to 
hear  two  lectures  a  week  from  the  same  man 
throughout  the  year.  If  he  is  a  great  man 
and  a  good  lecturer  it  will  be  well  content 
to  hear  a  course  or  two  from  him  in  a  life- 
time, but  even  then  it  will  acknowledge  sur- 
feit, and  be  sparing  in  utterance  of  grace. 

Yet  here,  again,  we  admit  at  the  beginning 
that  philosophical  powers  may  be  used  with 
advantage  in  preaching,  if  they  are  not  allowed 
to  "spoil"  the  preacher;  and  the  talent  of  the 
lecturer  is  often  of  service  in  the  vast  and 
varied  work  of  the  pulpit.  What  I  am  saying 
is  no  slight  passed  on  Thought;  and  as  we  pro- 


NOT    A    PRIEST.  23 

ceed  you  will  see  that  I  do  not  advocate  the 
neglect  of  those  stores  on  which  the  lecturer 
draws.  A  tincture  of  Philosophy  is  even 
necessary  for  every  preacher.  It  is  impossible 
to  move  with  dexterity  in  this  complicated 
world  without  some  intellio^ible  scheme  of 
things  underlying  our  thought.  A  wrong 
philosophy  is  better  than  none  at  all.  It  is 
better  to  be  through  life  a  novice  in  thought 
than  not  to  think.  And  in  the  same  way  the 
systematic  dividing  of  truth  to  the  people  in 
the  manner  of  a  lecturer  will  produce  a  cer- 
tain clearness  and  directness  in  the  higher 
service.  Let  one,  then,  who  would  be  a 
preacher,  not  shirk  the  travail  of  thought  or 
the  huckster's  habit  of  displaying  wares  to 
advantage.  These  things  are  good  if  it  is 
always  remembered  that  preaching  is  some- 
thing different,  independent  of  them,  though 
using  them,  and  often  more  powerful  unaided 
than  with  their  aid. 

Again,  the  Priest,  I  am  charitable  enough 
to  suppose,  has  a  sphere  of  his  own,  but  it  is 
not    the    preacher's.      I    say,    I    am    charitable 


24  THE    THEME. 

enough   to  suppose,   because    I   find  it  impos- 
sible   to    form    a    conception    of    what    place 
sacerdotalism    could    have    in    Christianity    as 
Christ  conceived  it ;  the  notion  that  men  can 
by  virtue  of  their  office  mediate  spiritual  and 
moral    blessings    to    others,   when   they   them- 
selves   do    not    possess  a   spiritual    or   even   a 
moral   life,  seems    to  cut   at  the   root   of    that 
inward  and  vital  relioion  the  law  of  which  wasP 
^oo^-*^;  summed    up    by  its    Founder    in    the    twofoldi 
i/lfi"^    command  to  love,  and  the  ritual  of  which  was' 
T  ^4^^^'   explained  by  the  same   authority  in  the  prin- 
^/iJ^    ciple  that  God  is  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  ' 
4/vd^r        must  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth.     But  leav- 
ing aside  this  subject  of  contention,  and  even 
conceding  that  a  human  priesthood  is  needed 
in  the  Christian  Church,  the  preacher's  func- 
tion is  essentially  different  from   the    priest's. 
If  the  checkered  history  of  the  Church  proves 
that   now  and  again    priests    have    been    true 
preachers,  it  has   been  not  by  virtue  of  their 
priesthood,  but  by  reason  of  their  entering  into 
a  totally  different  region  of  the  religious  life; 
and  broadly  speaking,  the  orders  of  preachers 


MUST    RECEIVE    A    MESSAGE.  '  25 

have  risen  up  outside  the  ranks  of  the  priests  t 
in  sacerdotal  Churches,  while,  as  a  rule,  preach- 
ing in  its  noblest  and  richest  sense  has  flour- 
ished and  wrought  its  wonders  only  in  those 
churches  in  which  the  priesthood  has  been 
abolished,  or  at  least  successfully  repressed/ 

We  have  to  face  the  truism,  the  neglected 
truism,  that  every  living  preacher  must  receive 
a  communication  direct  from  God.  This  is 
in  the  last  resort  the  only  justification  of 
preaching  at  all.  The  man  is  set  apart  to 
address  his  fellow-men,  sometimes  men  who 
are  his  equals  or  his  superiors  in  knowledge 
and  ability,  perhaps  even  in  speaking  power 
and  copiousness  of  language.  Why  should 
they  listen  to  him  ?     There  is  no  reason  why 

1  ''  Durch  das  Prophetenthum  ist  Israel  vor  den  Gefahren  der 
Priesterherrschaft  bewahrt.  Und  in  den  Zeiten  der  hochsten 
Entwicklung  dieser  Religion  haben  sich  die  Wege  des  priester- 
lichen  Schriftgelehrten  mit  seiner  Thorah  und  des  Propheten 
mit  seinem  Gottesworte  mehr  und  mehr  von  einander  getrennt. 
Uoch  konnte  in  Israel  wie  bei  andern  Volkern  Priesterthum  und 
Prophetenthum  in  einer  Person  verbunden  sein,  und  vielleicht 
hat  es  sogar  wie  bei  den  Griechen  Familienzusammenhanije 
gegeben,  in  welchen  prophetische  Kraft  sich  besonders  aiisserte." 
(Hermann  Schultz,  OffenbantngsreUgioiu  &c.,  p.  216.) 


26  THE    THEME. 

^  they  should  unless  he  has  been  in  the  secret 
cell  of  the  Oracle  and  has  heard  God  speak. 
And  indeed  practically  they  will  not,  unless 
the  authentic  note  is  in  him,  and  Thus  saith  the 
Lord td.cit\y  introduces  all  that  he  teaches.  Has 
he  never  heard  the  voice  ?  Is  he  not  repeating 
a  message  ?  Then  assuredly  he  will  fail.  No 
man  taketh  this  honour  to  himself.  To  be 
God's  mouthpiece  when  God  is  not  speaking 
through  him  is  a  fraud  of  the  palpable  kind 
which  men  will  not  away  with.  Over  many 
an  unfaithful  preacher  we  are  obliged  to  say 
what  Keble  said  of  the  disobedient  man  of 
God  in  the  Old  Testament^  — 

Alas,  my  brother,  round  thy  tomb 

In  sorrow  kneeling,  and  in  fear 
We  read  the  Pastor's  doom 
Who  speaks  and  will  not  hear. 

All  manner  of  sins  may  be  forgiven  a  preacher 
—  a  harsh  voice,  a  clumsy  delivery,  a  bad  pro= 
nunciation,  an  insufficient  scholarship,  a  crude 
doctrine,  an  ignorance  of  men;  but  there  is  one 

1  I  Kings  xiii.  26. 


FROM    GOD.  27 

defect  which  cannot  be  forgiven,  for  it  is  a  kind 
of  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost;  it  can- 
not be  forgiven  him  if  he  preaches  when  he 
has  not  received  a  message  from  God  to  de- 
liver. Woe  unto  those  prophets  whom  the 
Lord  hath  not  sent! 

That  genuine  prophet  of  our  day,  George 
Macdonald,  has  told  a  story  of  a  clergyman 
who  in  the  course  of  his  ministry,  by  inter- 
course with  a  dwarfed  but  genuinely  spiritual 
member  of  his  flock,  became  aware  that  his 
preaching  was  unreal,  the  repetition  of  things 
which  he  had  heard  by  rote,  and  in  no  sense 
the  utterance  of  anything  which  he  had  received 
from  God.  He  came  to  the  courageous  resolve 
to  announce  to  his  people  that  he  intended  to 
preach  to  them  other  men's  sermons,  in  each 
case  informing  them  of  the  author,  until  he 
had  something  to  tell  them  from  himself.  For 
some  months  this  avowed  plagiarism  went  on 
—  and  at  last  the  seal  of  the  fountain  within 
him  was  broken,  and  from  a  genuine  knowledge 
of  God  he  was  able  to  testify  what  he  had 
known  and  his  hands  had  handled  of  the  word 


28  THE    THEME. 

of  life.  That  was  a  wise,  and  indeed  an  inevi- 
table result  of  a  true  and  honest  soul  recog- 
nising the  reality  of  the  case.  There  is  no 
disgrace  in  frankly  avowing  that  no  word  of 
the  Lord  has  come  to  you ;  but  there  is  shame 
and  sorrow  in  preaching  when  the  word  has 
not  come ;  it  is  a  source  of  delusion  to  preacher 
and  hearer  alike. 

There  is  a  noble  preacher  in  England  to-day 
who  has  declared  that  the  turning-point  in  his 
ministry  came  when  he  discovered  the  principle 
of  which  I  am  speaking.  He  noted  carefully 
which  discourses,  or  which  parts  of  his  dis- 
courses, were  accountable  for  such  success  as 
attended  his  preaching.  And  presently  he 
'observed  that^nly  those  things  produced  any 
effect  which  had  passed  through  the  alembic  of 
his  own  experience,  and  had  been,  in  effect, 
real  transactions  between  himself  and  God. 
Thenceforward  he  began  to  base  his  preaching 
upon  that  foundation.  And  the  tides  of  bless- 
ing which  have  followed  his  work  in  these 
latter  years  are  an  evidence  that  the  change 
was  right. 


FROM    GOD.  29 

Things  which  are  happening  in  the  world 
around  you,  things  which  you  have  studied  in 
books,  all  the  material  of  preaching  may  be 
useful  or  useless.  It  is  nothinor  in  them  them- 
selves  which  determines  the  alternative.  What 
settles  the  question  is,  whether  or  no  the 
preacher  has  received  these  things  from  God 
to  deliver  in  that  form,  on  that  occasion,  and 
with  that  application. 

I  remember  once  hearing  a  very  remarkable 
and  poetic  preacher  declare  that  the  preacher, 
like  the  poet,  nascitur  non  fit.  I  think  he  was 
uttering  a  protest  against  the  notion  that  any 
college,  or  school  of  the  prophets,  can  produce 
a  prophet  by  training  or  education.  This  good 
minister  expressed  the  view  which  it  is  pre- 
cisely the  object  of  these  lectures  to  combat. 
I  do  not  wish  to  contest  the  point  that  colleges 
cannot  produce  true  preachers.  Perhaps  no 
person,  on  reflection,  ever  thought  that  they 
could.  But  the  gist  of  what  I  have  to  say  to 
you  will  perhaps  appear  at  once  if  I  lay  down 
the  proposition,  that  the  preacher  is  in  no 
respect  like  the  poet,  for  the  congenital  gifts  are 


30  THE    THEME. 

in  a  manner  an  accident.  Noii  iiascitiir,  iion 
fit.  He  is  not  born  a  preacher,  nor  is  he  made 
a  preacher.  But  he  is  called  of  God,  called  to 
receive  the  message  of  God.  If  he  receives  it 
diligently  and  delivers  it  faithfully  he  deserves 
the  name  by  which  he  is  called ;  if  he  ceases  to 
receive,  or  through  some  culpable  neglect  fails 
to  deliver  it,  he  is  put  from  his  office  by  God, 
even  if  he  retains  his  titles,  his  congregation, 
and  his  emoluments.  Non  nascitur,  non  fit^ 
sed  vacatur. 

It  would  be  premature  to  make  any  attempt 
to  state  how  and  on  what  conditions  this  imme- 
diate  communication  is  to  be  received  by  the 
genuine  preacher,  but  it  may  be  well  to  clear 
the  ground  for  what  is  to  be  subsequently  said, 
by  first  defining  this  kind  of  communication  so 
as  to  distinguish  it  from  other  psychological 
facts  with  which  it  may  be  easily  confused,  and 
then  pointing  out  some  of  the  demands  which 
must  be  made  on  every  one  who  thoroughly 
understands  what  a  task  the  preacher  is  called 
on  to  fulfil. 
J  First,  then,  we  must  observe  that  the  com- 


NOT    A    CREED.  3 1 

munlcatlon  which  God  gives  to  the  preacher 
must  be  something  over  and  above  the  intel- 
lectual conviction  that  certain  articles  of  religion 
are  true.  We  have  all  suffered  many  things 
from  preachers.  The  sum  of  the  world's  suffer- 
ings in  that  line  has  yet  to  be  made  up.  But 
the  most  insufferable  pain  has  come  from  men 
w^ho  thoroughly  accept  the  great  truths  of 
religion  —  of  Christianity — and  make  no  ques- 
tion about  their  obligation  on  the  conscience 
and  receptiveness  of  the  hearer,  and  yet,  never 
commending  the  truths  to  believers,  or  to  un- 
believers, are  simply  tiresome  in  their  logical 
precision  and  irritating  in  their  irresistible  con- 
clusiveness. To  be  firmly  persuaded  of  relig- 
ious truth  is  not  in  itself  a  call  to  preach. 
Every  man  should  have  this  persuasion  — every 
man  should  have  his  orthodoxy  and  hold  by  it. 
But  every  man  is  not  required  to  offer  his  or-  j 
thodoxy  to  others.  The  articles  of  his  faith, 
whencesoever  derived,  are  for  him,  and  for 
him  alone,  until  God  adds  this  other  article  to 
the  rest,  "Go  and  tell  My  people."  In  days  of 
doubt  and  uncertainty  it  may  be  so  rare  a  thing 


/ 


32  THE    THEME. 

for  a  man  to  have  a  fixed  belief,  that  the  pos- 
session of  it  may  seem  to  lay  on  the  possessor 
the  duty  of  exposition.  But  in  the  Christian 
consciousness  this  is  not  enough.  Before  utter- 
ance is  obligatory,  the  word  must  be  burning 
within  like  the  seething  lava-fountains  in  the 
heart  of  a  volcano,  and  demanding  outlet  by 
a  Divine  compulsion.  When  God  bids  a  man 
speak,  it  often  chances  that  the  man  has  few 
truths  to  utter,  and  those  in  a  chaotic  condi- 
tion ;  not  infrequently  His  Nabi,  or  Seer,  is  one 
with  a  poor  range  of  thought,  and  many  big 
lacunae  in  his  knowledge ;  such  a  man  as  no 
earthly  sovereign  would  select  as  an  ambassa- 
dor, and  no  University  would  pass  as  a  gradu- 
ate, but  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  comes  upon 
him;  he  speaks  the  poor  and  halting  word,  but 
it  goes  like  a  "  bolted  breath,"  and  is  wedged 
in  a  gnarled  heart  that  no  erudition  or  elo- 
quence could  touch.  God's  word  may  come  to 
a  man  in  a  creed  as  rigid  as  Calvin's,  and  work 
through  an  intellectual  system  held  and  taught 
as  relentlessly  as  Calvinism  was  held  and  taught 
by  Jonathan  Edwards.     But  it  may  not.     And 


NOT    MERELY    EXPERIENCE.  ^1, 

we  must  keenly  discriminate  between  the  ac- 
ceptance and  the  conviction  of  such  a  creed  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  preacher's  direct  com- 
munication on  the  other. 

Nor,  strange  as  it  sounds  at  first,  is  even  a  2^ 

personal  experience  of  vital  •  religion  in  the 
soul  a  sufificient  warrant  for  preaching.  God 
will  often  give  a  man  bread,  yes,  and  wine 
and  oil,  to  strengthen  and  gladden  his  heart, 
and  yet  by  no  means  require  him  to  dispense 
to  a  multitude.  The  loaf  will  not  bear  pull- 
ing—  or  its  tenuity  becomes  innutritions;  and 
his  cruse  is  empty  long  before  the  first  round. 
Though  a  real  preacher  receives  the  word  in 
his  experience,  and,  like  the  one  to  whom  I 
just  referred,  finds  his  message  quick  and 
powerful  on  that  condition  only,  yet  no  de- 
lusion  could  be  greater  than  that  he  has  to 
preach  his  own  experience  —  that  alone,  or 
even  chiefly  that.  What  soul  is  large  enough 
to  box  the  compass  of  the  winds,  and  to  travel 
all  seas  of  the  relis^ious  life  ? 

If  God  never  gives  a  man  a  message  except 
the  narrative  of  a  limited  round    of   personal 


34  THE    THEME. 

experiences,  let  him  speak  in  a  class-meeting, 
or  pour  out  his  soul  to  this  one  or  another, 
but  let  him  not  attempt  to  preach.  He  is 
certainly  not  called. 

Coleridge  tells  of  a  sculptor  who  produced 
very  indifferent  works,  but  one  feature  was 
always  well  moulded  and  executed.  The 
secret  at  last  oozed  out  —  he  had  a  wife  with 
no  other  points  of  beauty,  but  that  single 
feature.  A  preacher's  work  will  be  of  the 
same  untempered  quality,  the  same  wearisome 
1^  admixture  of  many  parts  bad  with  one  good, 
if  he  supposes  that  his  personal  experience, 
instead  of  the  word  he  receives  from  God,  is  to 
be  the  substance  of  his  messao^e.  He  is  an 
ambassadol'^— he  has  to  brins:  a  matter  from 
his  sovereign.  If  he  babbles  only  of  his  own 
passages  with  the  King  —  the  favours  he  has 
received  at  Court,  the  honour  conferred  on 
him  by  the  present  embassage,  and  the  like  — 
the  first  interest  with  which  he  was  received 
will  quickly  die,  and  a  conviction  will  spring 
up  that  even  those  personal  favours  must  be 
a  fiction,  for  how  could    the    Great    King   so 


PREACHING    NOT    POETRY.  35 

honour  one  who    has    this    incapacity    to    dis- 
charge his  simple  commission  ? 

Still  more  important  is  it  to  avoid  the  con- 
fusion between  a  communication  from  God 
and  the  emotional  or  esthetic  excitement 
which  is  produced  in  many  fine  temperaments 
by  religious  themes.  A  poet  or  an  artist  in 
the  pulpit  need  not  be  suspect  —  quite  the 
contrary  —  but  he  will  have  to  watch  himself 
suspiciously,  lest  he  fall  into  a  very  natural 
snare.  A  man  with  poetic  sensibility,  awake 
to  the  harmonies  and  the  raptures  of  high 
narrative,  is  very  apt  to  glow,  to  thrill,  to  melt, 
and  to  feel  the  moisture  on  his  cheek,  in 
handling  the  theme  of  religion,  and  especially 
in  telling  the  story  of  the  Christ.  There  is 
little  wonder  if  he,  and  even  his  audience, 
mistakes  this  effusion  of  feelino-  for  a  true 
word.  x>L-GjQd.  But  the  two  are  quite  distinct. 
An  utterance  from  the  deep  cell  of  immediate 
revelationuis  a  different  thing  from  the  musical 
sound  which  issues  out  of  the  cave  of  Apollo. 
Poet,  or  no  poet,  the  preacher  must  have 
heard  God ;    the  word  once  received  may  then 


36  THE    THEME. 

be  delivered  in  pedestrian  language,  or  in 
winged  words,  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
individual  speaker.  It  is  the  word  of  God, 
not  the  sweetness  of  the  numbers,  that  is 
important. 

In  the  same  way  many  natures  are  curiously 
susceptible  to  the  picturesque.  Colours  move 
them.  Fretted  roofs  and  long-drawn  aisles, 
the  noise  that  high-built  organs  make,  and  the 
prophets  blazoned  on  the  panes,  affect  them 
with  sentiments  which  seem  to  be  religious. 
Preachers  subject  to  these  influences  may 
maintain  a  stream  of  very  pretty  eloquence, 
and  the  ears  of  the  people  may  be  soothed  and 
charmed  as  with  a  very  subtle  music,  and  all 
this  may  be  mistaken  for  the  word  of  God. 
Perhaps  it  is  a  good  and  safe  rule  that  unless  a 
message  can  touch  men  in  unadorned  simplic- 
ity, it  is  better  unadorned,  so  that  its  naked- 
ness may  appear.  Unless  a  sermon  can  be 
effective  in  a  hayloft  or  by  the  wayside  it  will 
be  useless  in  a  cathedral.  Is  the  word  of  God 
in  it  authentic  and  immediate  and  real  ?  That 
is  the  vital  question.     If  the  word  of  God  is 


THE    RESPONSIBILITY.  37 

not  in  it,  the  esthetic  excitement  will  be  only 
a  delusion,  and  the  preacher  may  be  himself 
deluded  as  he  is  deluding  others. 

Further  distinctions  and  delimitations  may 
be  spared  at  this  stage.  Here  is  the  one  thing 
needful.  The  preacher  is  called  upon  to  go 
direct  to  God,  to  receive  God's  word  into  his 
heart,  and  to  utter  it,  it  alone,  with  all  the 
power  that  is  in  him.  If  the  word  is  not 
God's,  if  it  is  not  received  from  Him,  received 
in  that  shape  and  for  that  occasion,  he  were 
better  silent ;  his  message  will  fall  to  the 
ground ;  and  he,  unfaithful  one,  will  have  a 
weary  circle  in  the  purging  fires  to  tread,  that 
he  may  repent  and  learn  wisdom. 

But  if  this  is  so,  who  can  adequately  describe 
the  preacher's  responsibility  ?  Or  how  can  we 
sufficiently  emphasise  the  essential  conditions 
of  rightly  discharging  the  high  office  ? 

He  must  get  a  word  from  God  before  he 
speaks  it  —  that  is  the  requirement.  Even  at 
this  point  it  is  possible  to  see  what  that  will 
demand  from  him  in  the  bent  of  his  mind  and 
in  the  initial  set  of  his  life.     Clearly  he  has  a 


^S  THE    THEME. 

task  which  will  need  an  undivided  attention 
and  a  complete  absorption  in  its  fulfilment. 
He  is  to  climb  Sinai  with  its  ring-fence  of  death, 
and  on  the  summit  speak  face  to  face  with  Him 
whom  no  one  can  see  and  yet  live.  He  is  to 
push  through  the  wilderness,  eating  angels' 
meat  or  nothing,  and  scale  the  crags  of  Horeb, 
where  in  a  great  hollow,  shadowed  by  a  hand, 
he  may  through  earthquake,  wind,  and  fire, 
discern  the  still  small  voice.  What  a  venture 
it  is  for  him  !  No  sphere  of  human  activity  is 
to  be  compared  with  the  exigencies  of  this 
endeavour.  Men  who  are  set  on  making 
money  give  their  whole  being  to  it,  their  time 
is  freely  sacrificed;  for  the  one  dear  end  they 
do  not  hesitate  to  barter  the  sweets  of  life,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  earth, 

Et  propter  vitam  vivendi  perdere  causas. 

Not  only  do  they  surrender  the  charms  of  ease 
and  spiritual  development  here,  but  they  very 
readily  forego  the  life  to  come,  give  their  souls 
to  the  god  of  this  world,  and  tread  with  restless 
eagerness  the  descensus  Avc7nii.  And  all  this, 
that  they  may  make  money ! 


THE    TOIL    OF    IT.  39 

The  preacher  must  cast  the  die  with  a  simi- 
lar absoluteness.  For  the  descent  to  Avernus 
is  easy  compared  with  the  ascent  to  the  mount 
of  God  and  the  entrance  to  the  place  of  the 
Oracle. 

Or  again,  notice  how  a  painter  achieves 
excellence.  The  world  is  parcelled  out  into 
pictures  for  him.  He,  sees  the  moving  pano- 
rama as  the  landscape  is  framed  in  the  window 
of  the  flying  express.  He  catches  every  gleam 
of  the  changing  daylight,  and  every  effect  of 
the  falling  shadows.  Every  combination  of 
colours,  every  grouping  of  outlines,  every  inci- 
dent of  the  show,  is  entered  as  a  note  in  the 
sketch-book  of  his  mind.  He  can  only  be  a 
painter  on  these  terms :  that  he  will  sit  at  the 
gateway  of  Nature,  and  never  miss  a  glimpse 
when  the  door  is,  for  moments  too  brief,  rolled 
back  on  its  hinges.  He  must  be  a  mirror  of 
the  great  pageant  by  day  and  night,  and  must 
order  and  compose  the  fleeting  reflexions. 

So  has  the  preacher  to  wait  at  the  portal  of 
God,  and  to  receive  into  himself  the  solemn 
utterance  from  the  Holy  Place.  He  has  time 
for  no  inattention ;  he  can  admit  of  no  distrac- 


40  THE    THEME. 

tions.  There  is  much  to  hear,  and  he  can  spare 
no  syllable. 

Though  he  is  in  the  world  and  moving  with 
the  life  of  men,  full  of  sympathies  and  interests, 
full  of  the  world's  thought  and  its  passion,  he 
is  necessarily  detached  from  the  world,  not 
admitting  its  principles,  nor  dazzled  by  its  at- 
tractions, nor  flattered  by  its  favours.  When 
it  praises  or  blames,  his  ear  is  preoccupied  with 
the  voice  of  God.  Its  jargon,  its  claims,  its 
philosophy,  its  science,  the  cry  of  its  markets, 
and  the  tumult  of  its  havens,  the  giddy  rush  of 
its  pleasures,  and  the  acclamation  of  its  ambi- 
tions, come  to  him,  not  as  unreal,  —  they  are 
in  a  sense  too  real,  —  but  dwarfed  into  a  cer- 
tain insignificance  of  transitoriness  by  the  pres- 
ence of  a  truer  reality  and  the  authoritative 
sound  of  a  more  commanding  speech  which 
issues  from  the  mouth  of  God. 

He  cannot  allow^  the  motive  of  avarice  or 
social  advancement,  the  spur  of  human  admira- 
tion, or  the  promise  of  success,  to  move  him 
from  his  place  at  that  high  portal.  And  the 
World  may  well  look  with  a  kind  of  scornful 


ITS    COMPENSATIONS.  4 1 

pity  on  this  outsider  who  is  speaking  to  it,  so 
disillusioned  in  the  contemplation  of  its  delights, 
and  so  insistent  on  that  faint-soundino^  word  of 
God  which  to  him  is  the  only  voice  worth  hear- 
ing, and  to  it  is  the  only  voice  which  is  inaudi- 
ble or  at  least  incredible. 

But  he  does  not  need  pity,  he  has  his  com- 
pensations, for  — 

He  that  of  such  a  height  has  built  his  mind, 
And  reared  the  dwelhng  of  his  thoughts  so  strong, 
As  neither  fear  nor  hope  can  shake  the  frame 
Of  his  resolved  powers  ;  nor  all  the  wind 
Of  vanity  or  malice  pierce  to  wrong 
His  settled  peace,  or  to  disturb  the  same  : 
What  a  fair  seat  hath  he,  from  whence  he  may 
The  boundless  wastes  and  wealds  of  man  survey  ! 

And  with  how  free  an  eye  doth  he  look  down 

Upon  these  lower  regions  of  turmoil ! 

Where  all  the  storms  of  passion  mainly  beat 

On  flesh  and  blood  :  where  honour,  power,  renown, 

Are  only  gay  afflictions,  golden  toil ; 

Where  greatness  stands  upon  as  feeble  feet 

As  frailty  doth,  and  only  great  doth  seem 

To  little  minds  who  do  it  so  esteem.^ 

^  DaniePs  Epistle  to  the  Countess  of  Cumberland, 


LECTURE    II. 


LECTURE    II. 

"  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME." 

Illustrations  from  the  Old  Testament. 

The  present  lecture  Is  in  one  way  the  easi- 
est of  the  series,  for  we  are  all  tolerably  well 
agreed  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  in  a 
very  distinct  and  intelligible  manner  to  "  holy 
men  of  old."  The  difficulty  in  the  Church 
has  seldom  been  to  believe  that  the  word 
carne,  but  always  to  believe  that  it  comes. 
Most  of  us  are  believers  in  a  revelation  that 


was  ;  few  in  a  revelation  that  is^ 

It  may  be  that  we  have  only  the  faintest 
conception  of  what  is  meant  by  this  familiar 
phrase,  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  came ; "  it 
may  be  that  we  have  shut  it  up  among 
the  other  curiosities  of  that  venerable  mu- 
seum which  is  filled  with  Biblical  Ideas,  duly 
marked,  "  Visitors  are  requested  not  to  touch ;  " 

45 


46  ''  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME." 

it  may  be  that  we  never  expect,  we  should 
deem  it  an  irreverence  to  expect,  that  any  sim- 
ilar experience  should  happen  to-day ;  but  yet 
we  are  tacitly  agreed  that  "  God  did  of  old 
time  speak  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets 
by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners," 
and,  what  is  more,  we  believe  that  in  the  last 
resort  all  real  revelation  must  have  been  a 
A  communication  of  that  kind.  The  Old  Tes- 
tament,  we  should  probably  all  say,  derives  its 
authority  and  its  permanent  value  from  this, 
that  it  records  "  the  word  of  the  Lord  that 
I  came "  to  certain  selected  individuals  during 
\the  undefined  lapse  of  time  between  the  dawn 
of  human  life  on  this  planet  and  its  full  noon 
in  the  coming  of  Christ.^ 

^  "  Die  Gestalt  des  Propheten  ist  an  sich  die  erste  imd 
grundlegende  religiose  Gestalt.  Im  Geiste  des  Propheten  wird 
durch  den  Geist  Gottes  eine  unmittelbare  Gewissheit,  eine  innre 
Anschauung  von  Dingen  gewerkt,  welche  sich  dem  Zeugnisse 
der  Sinne  entziehen,  und  welche  von  der  reflectirenden  oder 
speculirenden  Vernunft  immer  nur  mit  annahernder  Wahr- 
scheinlichkeit  erkannt  werden  konnen.  Und  so  ruht  das 
Wesen  einer  Offenbarimgsreligion  durchaus  auf  Prophetie. 
Ohne  sie  giebt  es  nur  Naturreligion  oder  Philosophic.""  (Her- 
mann Schultz,  Die  Offenbarungsreligioii,  &c.,  p.  214.) 


THE    MANNER    OF    ITS    COMING.  47 

Whether  it  occurs  to  readers  of  the   Bible 
and  to  preachers  of  the  gospel  that  these  re- 
corded   examples    of    the    word    of    the    Lord 
coming  to  men  are  given,  not   only  as   treas- 
ures of  revelation  gathered  from  the  past,  but 
as   examples   of   what   may  be   expected  from 
tliejDre^nt,   I    am    unable   to   say.      But    this 
lecture  will    certainly  have    failed  of    its    pur- 
pose if  it  leaves  an  impression  that  there  was 
anything  which   ought   to   be   regarded  as  ex-t  ajji^^ 
ceptional    or    incapable    of    repetition    in    the  \ti^-<^^*^ 
Divme   events   and   the   personal    communica- 
tions  from    God    through    the    Law   and    the  | 
Prophets. 

The  discussion,  then,  that  is  before  us  may 
be  regarded  as  twofold:  (i)  What  was  the  '* 
manner  of  the  communication  received  by 
the  Prophets  and  Leaders  of  Israel  when 
"  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  "  to  them  ?  (2)  2. 
Are  there  facts  in  the  present  day  to  warrant 
the  belief  that  as  it  was,  so  it  is,  and  shall  be  ? 

L    What  actually  happened  when  "  the  word       /, 
of  the  Lord  came  "  to  those  men  of  old  time  ? 
Now,  without   diverging  from    the   matter   in 


48  "  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAMe/' 

hand  Into  a  discussion  of  a  very  different 
j  kind,  it  is  necessary  to  remind  ourselves  that 
I  there  are  several  degrees  of  accuracy  and 
authenticity  in  the  records  which  form  the 
Old  Testament.  By  methods  familiar  enough 
to  the  critic  it  is  not  difficult  to  discern  be- 
tween documents  which  tell  the  story  of 
events  that  lie  for  the  writer  in  a  distant 
past,  and  documents  which  are  in  a  sense 
autographic,  the  personal  experiences  of  the 
writer  himself  or  of  his  immediate  contempo- 
raries. It  is  misleading  in  the  highest  degree 
to  make  no  distinction  between  two  such  dif- 
ferent authorities.  It  may  be,  for  example, 
precarious  in  the  extreme  to  lay  stress  on  the 
pious  traditions  concerning  a  patriarch  which 
possibly  did  not  find  their  way  into  writing 
until  a  thousand  years  after  his  death  ;  and 
it  would  be  misleading  indeed  if  we  were  to 
areue  from  the  conversation  between  Abraham 
and    the    Lord   concernino-  the  destruction   of 


^1 


^.JoiJSodom  that  we  to-day  may  expect  to  holda 

f'^fy^'^'^^conversation   in   that  form.      But   it   is  a  very 

^  wsuLf*^  different    matter    if   we    have    the    actual    and 
^   -— ^ 


BY    DREAMS.  49 

undisputed  testimony  of  a  man  himself  that 
the  communications  which  passed  between 
him"  and  God  were  distinct  and  intelh'gible 
and  capable  of  being  written  down.  Little 
might  be  inferred,  of  a  practical  and  experi- 
mental kind,  from  the  leo^end  of  Enoch  or  the 
copious  and  loving  traditions  of  Abraham, 
but  much  may  be  inferred  from  the  definite 
statements  of  Micah,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Eze- 
kiel  ;  and  with  the  experience  of  these  great 
souls  before  us  we  may  not  only  heighten  our 
expectation  of  what  may  happen  now,  but  we 
may  also  go  back  into  the  ages  before  them 
and  give  some  rational  credence  to  what  is  re- 
ported from  that  remote  and  legendary  past. 

Now,  firmly  bearing  in  mind  the  distinction 
which  has  to  be  made  between  the  different 
sources  of  our  information,  we  may  proceed  to 
examine  what  may  be  called  the  tnanner  of 
revelation. 

First  of  all,  and  on  the  lowest  scale,  there  /.  i>e^-***^ 
are  the  communications  of  God  to  men  throuoh 
the    inexplicable    phenomena    of    dreams.     In 
the  Yahvistic  narrative  of  the  Pentateuch  there 


V^-^J/VVA    , 


50         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

are  many  instances  given.  Two  will  suffice 
for  illustration.  In  Gen.  xv.  i  we  read,  "  The 
word    of   the    Lord    came    unto    Abram    in  a 


M  l*^ 


VISION,  saying.  Fear  not,  Abram ;  I  am  thy 
shield  and  thy  exceeding  great  reward,"  and 
then  follows  the  account  of  that  striking  cove- 
nant made  between  Abram  and  his  God,  which 
is  the  tyjDC  of  all  such  covenants  made  since  by 
godly  men.  The  other  instance  may  be  taken 
from  Num.  xxii.  19-20,  where  Balaam  receives 
his  commands  from  God  by  night,  l^i;esuiTiably 
in  a  dream :  "  God  came  unto  Balaam  and  said 
^M*-«,W  unto  him,  If  the  men  be  come  to  call  thee,  rise 
f^^  V  '^P'  §^  with  them ;  but  only  the  word  which  I 
J  k)ha4- speak  unto  thee,  that  shalt  thou  do." 

One  example  may  be  added  from  the   Book 

of  Samuel :  "  It  came  to  pass  the  same  night 

dv^(>^,    ^j^^|.  |.|^g  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  Nathan, 

saying.  Go  and  tell  My  servant  David,"  Sec. 
(2  Sam.  vii.  4).  But  simil.aj  experiences  occur 
thi'oughout  the  Bible,  and,  we  may  add, 
throughout  the  history  of  the  Church. 


^  ^f^    \v       rtis  a  difficult  subject  to  thoroughly  investi 


gate.     But  it  seems  to  be  clear  that  God  uses 


•or-ij 


//iLUwir  /w^t.'AX^v  t^>;-r^  <iw^^  fi-S^, 


KSKmj^^ 


IN    ECSTASY.  51 

the  state  of  semi-consciousness  and  suspended'i^ 
will-action, 

When  the  dumb  hour,  clothed  with  black, 
Brings  the  dreams  about  the  bed, 

to  present  His  commandments,  and  sometimes 
to  show  His  purposes  for  the  future,  to  His 
servants  who  wait  for  Him. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  our  hours 
of  full  consciousness  must  be  very  fully  sur- 
rendered to  God  if  He  is  thus  to  appear  to  us 
in  the  hours  of  half-consciousness,  and  that  our 
day  must  be  very  strenuously  and  continuously 
given  to  Him,  if  the  night  is  to  be  the  occasion 
of  His  closer  communion  with  us. 

But,  seco7idly,  there  is  a  means  of  revelation  "Z-f^t^-nh 
to  be  distinguished  from  dreams  ^  which  may 
be  called  ecstasy.  By  obedience,  by  self-sur- 
render, by  prayer,  by  careful  withdrawal  from 
the  entanglements  of  the  world,  prophetic  men 
entered  into  a  physical  and  mental  state  which 

1  Jer.  xxiii.  25,  28,  32,  shows  that  dreams,  as  a  very  uncertain /\^ji'  ^"iH"^ 
means  of  communication,  were  somewhat  discredited  in  the  '2Mv»^  iS'*^ 
highest  period  of  prophetic  activity.  (Cf.  Hermann  Schultz,  ^*^  tAstX- 
Offenbarungsreligioii^  p.  250.) 


52         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

was  abnormal,  if  we  are  speaking  of  the  com- 
mon life  that  men  live,  but  highly  normal,  if 
we  are  speaking  of  the  Divine  life  which  they 
were  meant  to  live.  All  that  is  best  and  most 
enduring  in  human  life  has  been  attained  by 
dedicated  men  of  this  kind. 

If  chosen  men  could  never  be  alone 

In  deep  mid-silence,  open-doored  to  God, 

No  greatness  ever  had  been  dreamed  or  done.^ 

Two  significant  examples  of  this  condition 
may  be  given.  Isaiah  tells  us,  in  the  first 
person,  how  he  was  called  to  his  life-long  mis- 
sion when  he  was  still  a  boy  (Isa.  vi.).  He  was 
in  the  Temple,  meditating,  no  doubt,  on  all 
that  was  implied  by  the  sacred  building,  and 
on  the  political,  the  social,  the  religious  con- 
dition of  his  country.  A  Divine  pageant 
passed  before  his  eyes.  The  dark,  narrow, 
lofty  chamber  seemed  to  expand  and  to  be 
illumined  with  heavenly  radiance.  There  was 
the  Lord,  surrounded  by  His  train  of  burning 
seraphim.     What   followed  was  a    transaction 

1  J.  R.  Lowell. 


ISAIAH    AND    EZEKIEL.  53 

between  the  young  man  and  God,  evidently 
a^  real  and  tangible  to  his  consciousness  as 
anything  that  happens  between  man  and  man. 
Language  has  no  meaning,  and  literature  no 
authenticity,  if  this  is  not  to  be  treated  as  an 
actual  occurrence,  an  occurrence  of  thrilling] 
and  poetical  interest,  and  yet  literally,  and 
even  prosaically,  recorded.  The  ecstatic  con- 
dition is  not  to  be  confused  with  hallucination. 


It  is  a  form  of  the  Spirit's  life,  a  contact  be- 
tween the  visible  and  the  invisible.  And  so 
far  from  these  spiritual  experiences  being  dis- 
credited because  they  transcend  the  common 
experience  of  common  men,  the  true  meaning 
of  the  Spiritual  is,  as  Emerson  said,  the  Real, 
and  these  doings  in  the  higher  plane  are  the 
key  and  interpretation  of  life. 

The  other  example  which  will  serve  us  now  is 
that  of  Ezekiel.  The  book  of  this  prophet  is 
so  absolutely  unimpeachable,  its  authenticity 
is  so  far  above  suspicion,  its  careful  arrange- 
ment and  editing  give  such  a  sense  of  delibera- 
tion and  calm  conclusiveness,  that  the  express 
witness    of    this    writer    possesses    a    peculiar 


I\ 


54  "  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME. 

value.  There  is  something  curiously  particu- 
lar and  emphatic  in  the  introduction  of  the 
book.  "There  was  indeed^  a  word  of  Yahveh 
to  Ezekiel  the  priest,  the  son  of  Buzi,  in  the 
land  of  the  Chaldeans,  by  the  river  Chebar; 
and  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  there  upon 
him"  (Ezek.  i.  3).  Ezekiel  is  no  poet;  he  is 
quite  prosaic ;  such  poetry  as  appears  in  his 
book  is  the  realism  of  what  he  saw  in  vision. 
One  of  the  least  of  the  prophets  in  genius,  he 
is  one  of  the  greatest  in  vision.  He  lived  in 
view  of  the  opened  heavens. 

Thirdly,  the  word  of  the  Lord  evidently 
came  to  men,  not  in  dream  or  in  ecstasy,  but 
by  a  strengthening  of  the  natural  faculties, 
an  illumination  of  the  intelligence,  which  en- 
abled them  to  see  the  truth  and  speak  about 
things  present  and  to  come  with  a  wisdom  not 
their  own.     Keble  well  expresses  it  thus:  — 

As  little  children  lisp  and  tell  of  Heaven, 
So  thoughts  beyond  their  thought  to  those  high  bards  were 
given. 

1  The  Hebrew  idiom  of  emphasis  .TH  ,Tn  occurring  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sentence  lays  stress  on  the  actuality  of  the  fact. 


DIRECT    INSPIRATION.  55 

Nothlno:  can  be  more  instructive  for  us  than 
to  observe  the  operation  of  this  human,  yet 
Divine,  insph-atimi.  Take,  for  example,  the 
prophet  Micah.  He  is  a  man  of  the  people. 
He  is  keenly  alive  to  their  sufferings  and 
espouses  their  cause.  The  intensity  of  his 
moral  convictions  unites  him  with  God;  and  «'' 
the  truths  he  utters  come  to  him  definitely  as  ' 

God  s  truths  i;ather  than  his  own.  To  quote 
the  words  of  a  prophetic  student  of  the 
prophets :  — 

"  Micah  is  convinced  of  Jehovah's  spiritual 
presence  with  him,  and  perfectly  happy  in  the 
faith  that  liis  own  opinions  are  the  very  mind 
of  God,  and  have  arisen  in  his  soul  by  God'si 
spiritual  operation  in  him.  He  founds  his 
spiritual  life  on  direct  oneness  of  his  spirit 
and  power  and  activity  with  the  spirit  of  God.  "^ctu^^uw^ 
His  power  to  speak,  to  think  aloud,  to  win  or/^*''^  ,''  ' 
to  condemn  by  eloquent  speech,  his  whole  ^Ui:ch-< 
personal  beneficent  activity  is  one  with  the  f^^^'y^^ 
Spirit  Jehovah."  ^  i^^^  h^ 

1  Archibald   Duff,    M.A.,    LL.D.,    0/d  Testament   Theology^   £l^0^  ^ 
p.  325.  '^nA    ^  "^^ 


56         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

^^^XurtM-  Those  S]3|ntual  directions  which  shaped  the 
!;1_,  5^'^liistory  of  Israel,  and  made  the  chosen  people 
KriT^ct  the  forerunner  of  Christ ;  those  conceptions  of 
j^iP^'  God  which  were  the  essential  condition  of 
y:^;^  receiving  the  full  revelation  of  God  in  the 
M-^  Person  of  Christ ;  those  noble  religious  truths 
y^^' which  abide  for  ever  in  the  Old  Testament, 
'fe^M^like  stars  in  the  firmament,  a  lio-ht  shinins:  in  a 
^zs^  dark  place,  not  superseded  even  by  our  fullest 

O^f^M  and  latest  knowledge;  —  were  received  from 
^^■cvvt^  God  very  largely  by  men  of  like  passions  with 

y  ^vj^kt^ypurselves,     who    in    simplicity    of    heart    and 

^^^  singleness  of  purpose  threw  their  minds  open 
^  ir^      to  God,  and  allowed   His  Spirit  to  work  upon 

^^^their  nature,  until  the  exercise  of   their   iudo;- 


— /y  ment  on  political  issues  which  were  before 
r(%^  them,  the  formation  of  a  theolo2:y  in  their 
"^O  .'  glowing  hearts,  and  the  careful  elaboration  of  a 


,vw^^^  moral  code,  were  veritable  words  of  God.  Not 
^Jl^r  that  any  infallibility  could  attach  to  their 
^>^/*^ utterances.  The  human  factor  could  not  be 
f^^^'  completely  eliminated.  It  was  not  given  to 
1^  '  them  to  rise  entirely  above  their  environment, 
Pl^^i^^    or  to  see  things  out  of  the  forms  of  time  and 


JEREMIAH.  57 

space  In  which  their  Hfe  necessarily  moved. 
Thus,  for  example,  in  one  of  the  most  striking 
communications  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  the 
greatest  of  all  the  prophets,  Jeremiah,  that 
prophecy  In  which  a  promise  Is  made  of  "  a 
Branch  of  Righteousness  to  grow  up  unto 
David,"  it  appears  from  the  language  employed 
that  the  prophet  himself  expected  the  throne 
of  David  in  Jerusalem  and  the  ministrations  of 
the  Levites  in  the  Temple  to  be  inviolable  and 
eternal,  it  not  being  given  to  him  to  understand 
that  throne  and  temple  alike  were  to  disappear 
and  find  their  fulfilment  in  the  Person  of 
Christ.^  But  In  their  complete  surrender  to 
the  will  of  God,  and  their  constant  study  of 
His  mind,  they  became  quite  consciously  the 
organs  of  His  utterance,  and  could  say  without 
hesitation,  in  words  which  no  good  man  can 
use  without  a  conviction  of  their  truth,  words 
which  the  prophets,  as  the  events  have  proved, 
were  fully  justified  in  using,  "  The  word  of  the  [ 
Lord  came  unto  me,  saying." 

Nothing  but  a  close  and  constant  study  of 

1  Jer.  xxxiii.  14-26. 


58  "  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME. 


li 


i.: 


the    Prophets    can    adequately   bring    out    the 

vvM^-r-  i  nature  and  significance  of  this  inward  exjDerir 

^'^^^'' •  ence.     But   one   or   two   observations  may  be 

made  in  passing.     Even  when  the  word  of  the 

Lord  was  received  by  what   might   be   called 

rgi^t 4^^  natural  methods,  as  distinct  from  dreams  and 

LnA  'itA'   ecstasies  —  even  when   it   came    apparently  as 

^.^  /     the  simple  exercise  of  a  sound  judgment  or  the 

utterance    of    a   searching    moral    truth  —  the 

jj  prophet    distinguished    quite    clearly    between 

I  his  own  mind,  which  was  the  instrument,  and 

I  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  was  the  speaker.     The 

>^Ae^^     word  of  the  Lord  comes  into  the  heart  —  comes 

Jt^'   from  Him,  but  it  will  out.     Our  own  opinions 

^.  /;^\we  can  always  suppress  it  we  will  —  even  our 

UAV--'  '  convictions  of  truth  do  not  always  lay  upon  us 

•  • '  the    obligation    of   utterance.     But    when    the 

word  of  the  Lord  is  in  a  man's  heart  it  acts  as 

it  did  in  Jeremiah.     "  If  I  say  I  will  not  make 

mention  of   Him,  nor  speak  any  more  in   His 

name,  then  there  is  in  my  heart  as  it  were  a 

burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and   I   am 

weary  with  forbearing,  and   I  cannot  contain " 

(Jer.  XX.  9). 


DIPSUCHIA.  59 

Again,  apart  from  the  ecstatic  state  in  .vhich  2)v^^ 
Isaiah   conversed   with   God,   there    is,   in    the 
quiet   and   unexcited  communion  of    the   soul 
with  its  Maker,  an  interchange  of  thought  —  a 
lofty  argument  —  which  can  only  be  expressed 
in  the  form  of  a  dialogue.     That  element  of 
Dipsuchia    which    is    often   perceived    in    con-  'Sic/vw.  ^ 
sciousness,  when  two  contending  voices  seem   '■■^^^    ' 
to    be    answering    one    another    in    the    soul,  '^  >"::*«^><^ 
appears  in^  the  experience  of  the  prophet  still  "---^ 


more  distinctly ;  the  argument  proceeds  between 
the  self  and  God.  Thus  Jeremiah  gives  us  a 
daylight  experience ;  there  is  no  hush  or  mys- 
tery of  the  night  about  it;  there  is  no  excite- 
ment of  the  Temple  service,  nor  even  the 
agitation  of  the  exiled  spirit  on  the  gloomy 
bank  of  Chebar ;  but  he  says  very  simply : 
"  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying. 
Before  I  formed  thee  in  the  belly  I  knew  thee, 
and  before  thou  camest  forth  out  of  the  womb 
I  sanctified  thee ;  I  have  appointed  thee  a 
prophet  unto  the  nations."  Such  a  voice  has  . 
surely  often  sounded  in  the  meditative  soul  of  ' 
a  young  man  who  has  been  brought  up  in  a  - 


9/-  -^ 


6o  'THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME." 

religious    home    and    nurtured    on    the    lap   of 
^  ^^   prayer.     And    he    is    jpersuaded    that    God    is 
X^/f^   calling  him   to  be    His  messenger.     To   Jere- 
^^■^^"^   miah,  however,  the  voice  is  so  objective,  and,  in 
the    vulgar  sense   of    the   word,   real,    that   he 
answers  aloud,  "  Ah,  Lord  God,  behold,  I  can- 
not speak,  for  I  am  a  child."     And  the  dialogue 
proceeds  in  perfect_ sincerity  and  obvious  reality. 
"  But  the   Lord  said  unto  me.  Say  not,  I  am  a 
child;    for    to    whomsoever   I  shall    send   thee 
thou  shalt  go,  and  whatsoever  I  shall  command 
thee  thou  shalt  speak.  .  .  .  Then  the  Lord  put 
forth   His  hand,  and  touched  my  mouth ;  and 
the  Lord  said  unto  me.  Behold,  I  have  put  My 
,   words    in    thy    mouth."  ^     Now,   if   we    are   to 
/  make    some    allowance    for    the    naivete    and 
(    imagery  of   Eastern  speech,  if  we   hesitate  to 
affirm  that  this  dialogue  was  of  such  a  character 
that    indifferent    persons  standing  near  would 
have  heard  it,  or  that  a  hand  was  put  out  which 
sensibly  touched   the   young  man's  lips,  there 
can   yet   be  no  shadow   of   question  that  here 
was  a  gQmjine_^xperience,  a  real  contact  with 

1  Jer.  i.  4-10. 


ELIJAH    AND    SAMUEL.  6 1 

God,  a  command  given,  a  deprecatory  plea,  a 
renewed  command  with  an  enabling  power,  and 
a  clear  conviction  that  henceforth  the  words  to 
be  spoken,  though  issuing  from  human  lips, 
should  really  proceed  from  the  Divine  mind. 
And  the  whole  Book  of  Jeremiah,  notwith- 
standing the  somewhat  confused  editing,  and 
the  frequently  cumbersome  language,  fully 
justifies  the  expectation  which  is  created  by 
this  remarkable  introduction. 

It  is  the  same  with  all  the  prophets  whose 
writings  have  come  down  to  us,  and  after  a  care- 
ful study  of  their  words,  and  the  confession  of 
their  call,  which  they  all  make  with  more  or  less 
distinctness,  we  may  turn  back  to  those  earlier 
prophets  —  whose  messages  were  written  not 
by  them  at  the  time  but  by  their  disciples  who 
cherished  the  memory  of  their  words  —  to 
Elijah,  to  Samuel,  to  Moses,  and  may  perceive 
with  a  clearer  understanding  the  manner  of 
the  Lord's  communications  to  them. 

There  is  no  more  authentic  personality  in 
the  Bible  than  Elijah.  Ever  since  he  lived 
they  who  have  studied  his  history  have  agreed 


62         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

with  the  widow  of  Zarephath  in  her  exclama- 
tion, "  Now  I  know  that  thou  art  a  man  of  God, 
and  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  in  thy  mouth  is 
truth  "  (i  Kings  xvii.  24).  The  word  which 
came  to  him  was  that  of  practical  and  immedi- 
ate direction  in  a  bold  protest  against  religious 
corruption,  and  a  manful  championship  of 
spiritual  worship,  rather  than  discourses  which 
would  instruct  after  generations.  But  it  is 
evident  that  his  zeal  was  created  and  sustained, 
and  the  protest  he  made  was  effectual  with 
sovereigns  and  with  people,  because  upon  the 
watch-tower  of  Carmel,  or  in  the  caves  of 
Horeb,  he  maintained  that  solitary  communion 
with  God,  in  which  a^  passionate  and  devoted 
soul  receives  with  perfect  defiijiiteness  "  the' 
word  of  the  Lord."  Elijah  is  a  noble  example 
of  what  a  man  may  become  who/is  very  jealous 
for  the  Lord  his  God,  remains  disentangled 
/Uy/  »  from  the  religious  jornis  which  happen  to  pre- 


t-^/vt/-  vail  at   tlie   time,"  and  presses   into  immediate 
tvuJwV  relations  with  the  Supreme  Spirit,  to  hear  His 
>.^  k^  ^^  word  and  to  obey. 
7^(  >t^. Going  back  a  little  further  in  the  history,  we 


f^'-H^  ^(H    h  cX^tf-^t^    V/^v^r      C3 


f^ 


4^  Aa^uuA 


SAMUEL.  63 

light  Upon  Samuel,  a  genuine  prophet,  who 
received  and  delivered  the  word  of  the  Lord. 
There  is  a  pathetic  interest  about  this  man 
because  he  lived  in  one  of  those  periods,  Jar 
too  common  in  the  world's  history,  when  "  the 
word  of  the  Lord  is  rare,  and  there  is  no  open 
vision,"  a  period  of  formalj^i,  of  priestliness 
instead  of  religion,  when  every  one  was  readyj)  /Tj  '  A 
to  believe  that  the  Lord  spoke  long  ago  to  the 
fathers,  but  not  that  He  was  able  to  speak  still. 
That  dedicated  child,  conceived  and  born  in  M^Oh-^^ 
the  throes  of  prayer  and  of  a  mother's  faith,  JX.^/-^^wn 
stood  open-eared  to  hear  what  the  Lord  would 
say  throughout  his  life.  "  The  word  of  Samuel 
came  to  all ; "  and  rightly  so,  for  it  was  indeed 
th^jvord  of  God.  The  kingdom  was  his  crea- 
tion, and  the  man  after  God's  own  heart  was 
his  choice,  and  one  of  his  God-given  utterances 
rings  down  the  ages,  and  is  to-day  as  loud  a 
voice  of  God  as  w^hen  it  first  broke  from  Sam- 
uel's angry  lips :  "  Behold,  to  obey  is  better 
than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of 
rams"  (i  Sam.  xv.  22). 

Or,  pushing  back  further  still,  we  come  to 


64         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 
e#  (^^r.  \  Moses/     So   Immediate   and  decisive  was  his 


3^  K-     dealing  with  God,  so  important  and  unexpected 
^wl^l   was   the    communication   that  he  received,   so 

u«rfvVK    ... 

,    '        distinct  was  the  impression  which  his  Hfe  and 

j^^  personaHty  made  in  Israel,  that  it  occasions  no 

I  surprise  if  the  Law  by  which  the  community 

1  lived  was  always  ascribed  to  him  in  its  entirety, 

.  and  eveix.additiQn  made  to  the  code,  at  each 

\  successive  stage  of  development,  was  reverently/  ^J 

I  prefaced    by  "  The    Lord    spake    unto    Moses, 

f  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel."     Though 

criticism    and    history,    religion    and    common 

sense,  alike  make  it  impossible  to  accept  the 

Jewish  tradition  that  all   the   contents   of  the 

Pentateuch    were    communicated    by  word   of 

mouth  to  Moses,  there  can  be  no  question  but 

that  the   Lord  did  speak  to  Moses,  giving  him 

words  so  vital  and  eternal  that  they  created  a 

nation  which  time  and  change  seem  powerless 

to  destroy,  and  founded  a  religion  for  a  few 

^  For  the  historical  personality  of  Moses,  which  emero^es  from 
the  critical  recasting  of  the  Pentateuch,  a  personality  not  injured 
but  cleared  by  the  admission  of  the  undeniable  facts,  see  Her- 
mann Schultz,  D/e  Offenbanuigsreligioii,  &c.,  p.  114,  &c.  Got- 
tingen,  1889. 


MOSES.  65 

tribes  of  Bedouin  which  had  the  dynamic 
forces  in  it  to  change  and  master  the  world. 
Whatever  we  know  or  do  not  know  about 
Moses,  we  are  certain  that  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  to  him,  and  in  the  words  which 
have  come  to  mankind  ever  since  we  always 
detect  some  underlying  note  of  the  truths  com- 
municated on  Sinai  to  that  noble  and  heroic 


man.^ 


But  if  we  are  to  complete  the  scheme  of  this 
lecture  we  must  turn  from  these  fascinating 
inquiries  into  the  history  of  a  distant  past,  and 
put  the  question  which  refers  to  the  present. 

II.  Does  the  Word  of  the  Lord  couie  to  His 
serva7its  to-day  as  it  came  to  the  Prophets  and 
the  Leaders  of  Lsrael?  Now  we  have  not 
reached  the  stage  in  the  present  discussion  at 
which  a  reasoned  answer  can  be  given  to  this 
question.  Before  such  an  answer  can  be  given 
we  shall   have   to  conceive  correctly  how  the 

1  See  Schultz,  1.  c.  p.  118.  ''Moses  ist  weder  als  Philosoph 
noch  als  Dichter  der  Grlinder  der  Religion  seines  Volkes  gewor- 
den,  sondern  als  Prophet.  Er  hat  sie  empfangeii^  hat  sie  religios 
aufgenommen,  nicht  sie  denkend  geschaffen." 


66         "the  word  ov  the  lord  came." 

immediate  revelations  of  God  are  affected  by 
the  records  of  the  past  revelations  not  only  in 
the  Hebrew  Bible,  but  in  the  more  important 
writings  of  the  New  Testament.  But  it  is  pos- 
sible even  at  this  stage  to  give  two  or  three 
illustrations  taken  from  our  own  century,  and 
from  men  who  have  lived  among  us  and  been 
of  us,  to  throw  discredit  on  the  faithless  suppo- 
I  sition  that  the  days  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  are 
;'  in  the  past,  and  on  that  incredible  article  of 
faith  which  is  implied  in  much  of  our  modern 
religion,  that  God  who  was  so  near  to  patriarchs 
,  and  prophets  in  Canaan  that  they  could  hear 
Him  speak  and  receive  directions  from  His 
lips,  is  after  all  these  ages  of  growing  light,  and 
after  the  consummation  of  His  spiritual  revela- 
tion, less  near,  less  tangible,  less  audible,  less 
real  to  us. 

The  three  examples  which  I  will  give  shall 
all  be  taken  from  easily  accessible  sources,  and 
lest  I  should  in  any  way  colour  the  facts  by  my 
own  views  I  shall,  at  the  risk  of  being  weari- 
some, quote  the  words  of  the  principal  agents 
themselves.      The  examples  shall   be  Stephen 


DOES  THE  WORD  COME  NOW?        67 

Grellet,  the  Rev.  C.  G.  Finney,  and  the  Rev. 
Egerton  Young. 

Here  is  a  passage  from  the  Hfe  of  Stephen 
Grellet :  — 

"  Through  adorable  mercy,  the  visitation  of 
the  Lord  was  now  again  extended  towards  me, 
by  the  immediate  openings  of  the  Divine  light 
on  my  soul.  One  evening,  as  I  was  walking  in 
the  fields  alone,  my  mind  being  under  no  kind 
of  religious  concern,  nor  in  the  least  excited  by 
anything  I  had  heard  or  thought  of,  I  was  sud- 
denly arrested  by  what  seemed  to  be  an  awful 
voice  proclaiming  the  words,  '  Eternity  !  Eter- 
nity! Eternity!'  It  reached  my  very  soul, — 
my  whole  man  shook,  —  it  brought  me,  like 
Saul,  to  the  ground.  The  great  depravity  and 
sinfulness  of  my  heart  were  set  open  before  me, 
and  the  gulf  of  everlasting  destruction  to  which 
I  was  verging.  I  was  made  bitterly  to  cry 
out"  —  it  must  be  remembered  that  at  this 
time  he  considered  himself  an  atheist  —  '"If 
there  is  no  God,  doubtless  there  is  a  hell.'  I 
found  myself  in  the  midst  of  it.  .  .  .  After 
that  I  remained  almost  whole  days  and  nights, 


68  "  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME." 

exercised  in  prayer  that  the  Lord  would  have 
mercy  upon  me,  expecting  that  He  would  give 
me  some  evidence  that  He  had  heard  my  sup- 
plication.    But  for  this  I  was  looking  to  some 
outward   manifestation,   my   expectation   being 
entirely  of  that  nature."  ^ 
^  Aa>^  ^       This  was  the  commencement  of  a  life  —  lived 
~    ry  (^i    in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century —  hardly 
uVj  ^4^      less  remarkable   than   the   lives  of   Isaiah  and 
i  ^"y^'}^   Jeremiah.     It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  event  just 
'  ^^^|y^U     described  was  merely  subjective,  or  even  that  it 
p^f^^^^'^^  was  a  hallucination.     But  they  who  take  such 
^  i/^»^f   a  position  in  the  matter  will  say  that  the  call 
^**^^'^aI  of  Isaiah  was  hallucination,  and  the  conversa- 
ji^"^,     tion   between   Jeremiah   and   God  was  merely 
5«*  \^^  subjective.     The  purpose  for  which   I  cite  this 
^^^   U^  illustration  is  simply  to  show  that  the  word  of 
yu^^  *    the   Lord  comes  to  men  to-day  just  as  it  came 
^  ^^   iL  to  the  prophets  of  Israel. 

^'^^  *^      The  second  example  is  a  personal  experience 
f^    ro*-^*  of   Mr.   Finney's  which  must  be  given  in  his 
'■'.   own  words  :  — 

"  When  I  came  out  of  the  pulpit  in  the  after- 

^    M^'^  1  Life  of  Stephen  Grellet,  p.  13.     By  Benjamin  Seebohm. 


A    MESSAGE    GIVEN.  69 

noon  an  aged  man  approached,  and  said  to  me, 
'  Can  you  not  come  and  preach  in  our  neigh- 
bourhood ?  We  have  never  had  any  rehgious 
meetings  there.'  I  inquired  the  direction  and 
the  distance,  and  appointed  to  preach  there  the 
next  afternoon,  Mondav,  at  five  o'clock,  in  their 
schoolhouse.  ...  I  went  on  foot  to  fulfil  this 
appointment.  The  weather  was  very  warm 
that  day,  and  before  I  arrived  there  I  felt  almost 
too  faint  to  walk,  and  greatly  discouraged  in 
my  mind.  I  sat  down  in  the  shade  by  the  way- 
side, and  felt  as  if  I  were  too  faint  to  reach 
there,  and,  if  I  did,  too  much  discouraged  to 
open  my  mouth  to  the  people.  When  I  arrived 
I  found  the  house  full,  and  immediately  com- 
menced the  service  by  reading  a  hymn.  They 
attempted  to  sing,  but  the  horrible  discord  ago- 
nised me  beyond  expression.  I  leaned  forward, 
put  my  elbows  upon  my  knees  and  my  hands 
over  my  ears,  and  shook  my  head  withal,  to 
shut  out  the  discord,  which  even  then  I  could 
barely  endure.  As  soon  as  they  had  ceased  to 
sing  I  cast  myself  down  upon  my  knees,  almost 
in  a  state  of  desperation.     The  Lord  opened 


70  "  THE    WORD    OF    THE    LORD    CAME." 

the  windows  of  heaven  upon  me  and  gave  me 
great  enlargement  and  power  in  prayer.  Up 
to  this  moment  I  had  had  no  idea  what  text  I 
should  use  on  the  occasion.  As  I  rose  from 
my  knees  tJie  Lord  gave  fite  this :  '  Up,  get  you 
out  of  this  place,  for  the  Lord  will  destroy  this 
city.'  I  told  the  people,  as  nearly  as  I  could 
recollect,  where  they  would  find  it,  and  went 
on  to  tell  them  of  the  destruction  of  Sodom. 
.  .  .  While  I  was  doinof  this  I  was  struck  with 
the  fact  that  the  people  looked  exceeding  angry 
about  me.  Many  countenances  appeared  very 
threatening,  and  some  of  the  men  near  me 
looked  as  if  they  were  about  to  strike  me. 
This  I  could  not  understand,  as  I  was  only 
giving  them,  with  great  liberty  of  spirit,  some 
interesting  sketches  of  Bible  history.  ...  I 
turned  upon  them  and  said  that  I  had  under- 
stood that  they  had  never  had  any  religious 
meetings  in  that  neighbourhood  ;  and,  applying 
that  fact,  I  thrust  at  them  with  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit  with  all  m)^  might.  From  this  mo- 
ment the  solemnity  increased  wuth  great  rapid- 
ity.    In  a  few  moments  there  seemed  to  fall 


ANOTHER    EXAMPLE.  7 1        , 

upon  the  cono^reQ-ation  an  Instantaneous  shock :  ,A^  6'^'^<*^ 
.  .  .  the  Word  seemed  literally  to  cut  like  a  t^  ^J^ 
sword."  ^  >t^^WV^ 

I  need  not  quote  more.  At  the  second  visit  ^  p^^u^  Im^ 
Mr.  Finney  learned  for  the  first  time  that  the  ^ U^^<>^ 
place,  on  account  of  its  wickedness,  had  been-^K/^'" 
nicknamed  Sodom,  and  the  old  man  who  had  h^ ^^^ 
invited  the  preacher  to  visit  it  w^as  nicknamed  ^/XjtKj^ 
Lot  because  he  w^as  the  only  professor  of  relig-  Mm^  ^ 
ion  there. 

I    do    not    know   any   instance    in    the    Old  ! 
Testament  of  the  word   of   the    Lord  comine 
more  aptly  and  powerfully,  or  in  circumstances 
of  greater  need  and  dejection,  to  a  Moses,  a 
Samuel,    an    Elijah,    or    any    of    the    prophets  ' 
whose  writings  have  come  down  to  us. 

My  third  example  shall  be  from  a  page  of 
modern  missionary  enterprise.  The  narrator 
spent  many  years  in  preaching  the  gospel  to 
the  Indians  in  the  Canadian  Dominion.  He 
says : — 

"  On  the  banks  of  a  wild  river,  about  sixty 
miiles  from    Beaver   Lake,   I  visited  a  band  of 

1  The  Baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost ^  p.  237.     By  Dr.  Asa  Mahan. 


(/^, 


72         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

pagan  Indians,  after  a  painful  and  difficult 
journey,  who  seemed  determined  to  resist  every 
appeal  or  entreaty  I  could  make  to  them. 
My  faithful  Indians,  my  companions,  did  all 
they  could  to  rouse  them  by  telling  them  of 
their  own  happy  experience.  But  the  people 
sat  shrouded  in  their  blankets,  smoking  in  a 
sullen  indifference,  upright  and  motionless  as 
mummies.  Tired  out  in  body  and  sad  at 
heart,  I  threw  myself  upon  the  help  of  God 
and  breathed  a  prayer  for  guidance  in  this 
hour  of  sore  perplexity.  God  heard  me,  and 
springing  up  I  shouted,  '  I  know  where  all  your 
children  are,  all  your  dead  children !  Yes,  I 
know  most  certainly  where  all  the  children  are 
whom  Death  has  taken,  the  children  of  the 
good  and  the  bad.  I  know  where  they  all 
are.'  The  Indians  quickly  uncovered  their 
faces  and  manifested  intense  interest.  I  went 
on  :  '  They  have  gone  from  your  camp-fires  and 
your  wigwams.  The  hammocks  are  empty 
and  the  little  bows  and  arrows  lie  idle.  Your 
hearts  are  sad,  and  you  mourn  for  the  children 
you  hear  not,  and  who  come  not  at  your  call. 


ALWAYS    THE    SAME.  73 

But  there  is  only  one  way  to  the  beautiful 
land  where  the  Son  of  God  has  gone,  and 
into  which  He  takes  the  children,  and  you 
must  come  this  way  if  you  would  be  happy 
and  enter  in.'  As  I  spoke  a  big,  stalwart 
man  from  the  side  of  the  tent  sprang  up  and 
rushed  towards  me.  '  Missionary,  my  heart 
is  empty,  and  I  mourn  much,  for  none  of  my 
children  are  left  among  the  living ;  very  lonely 
is  my  wigwam.  I  long  to  see  them  again  and 
to  clasp  them  in  my  arms.  Tell  me,  mis- 
sionary, what  must  I  do  to  please  the  Great 
Spirit,  that  I  may  enter  that  beautiful  land 
and  see  my  children  again  ?  ^  He  sank  at  my 
feet  in  tears,  and  was  quickly  joined  by  others 
who,  like  him,  were  broken  down  with  grief 
and  anxious  for  instruction."  -^ 

Was  not  that  exclamation,  "  I  know  where  O^  ^^ 
all      vour     dead    children    are,"    a     veritable  ^H^  ^ 
word    of    God  ?      Did    ever   any   saint   in    Old  ^    \f 
Testament    times    receive    a   more    direct    or  (/-inj^ff^ 
manifest  message  to  deliver?     It  was  the  one    ^^ ' 

1  From   Mr.    Egerton  Young's   deeply  interesting  book,  By 
Canoe  and  Dog  Train . 


74         "the  word  of  the  lord  came." 

point  where  the  callousness  of  that  congre- 
gation was  penetrable.  The  missionary  had 
no  means  of  knowing  where  that  one  point 
was.  And  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him.  He  gave  it:,  and  with  such  result  as 
might  be  expected. 

The  method  of  God  is  one  in  all  a^es. 
Every  one  who  is  to  speak  for  Him  must 
hear  Him  speak.  With  distinct  and  personal 
application  the  word  must  come :  "  As  an 
adamant  harder  than  flint  have  I  made  thy 
forehead  :  fear  them  not,  neither  be  dismayed 
at  their  looks,  though  they  be  a  rebellious 
house.  Son  of  man,  all  My  words  that  I  shall 
speak  unto  thee  receive  in  thy  heart,  and  hear 
with  thine  ears.  And  go,  get  thee  to  them 
of  the  captivity,  unto  the  children  of  thy 
people,  and  speak  unto  them,  and  tell  them. 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  God;  whether  they  will 
hear,  or  whether  they  will  forbear"  (Ezek.  iii. 

i^H..^^;  ^U     J>^-Wm    K^  i/^^    ^^^'  ^Vi^-^ 


^/ZZ:^ 


LECTURE    III. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

To  one  who  has  been  patiently  investigating 
and  quietly  pondering  the  significance  of  the 
expression,  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  came,"  in 
the  Old  Testament  history  and  prophecy,  it 
gives  a  shock  of  mild  surprise  to  turn  over  the 
leaves  of  the  Bible,  and  to  read  in  the  New 
Testament  —  yes,  and  as  the  middle  point  and 
pivot  of  the  New  Testament  —  the  fact  that 
"  the  Word  /became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 
us."  He  may  not  be  curious  to  inquire  how 
the  use  of  an  expression  in  the  Targums,  and 
the  coining  of  a  cognate  term  in  the  philo- 
sophical schools  of  Alexandria,  prepared  the 
way  for  the  truth  with  which  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel opens.  He  may  be  simply  content  to  ac- 
cept the  Biblical  writings  as  they  stand,  and  to 

n 


yS  THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

use  them  as  their  own  interpreter.  And  then 
his  surprise  will  pass  into  a  glowing  wonder 
and  admiration.  For  it  appears  that  tjie 
Word  of  God,  which  through  many  advancing 
centuries  had  come,  in  syllables  and  letters,  to 
the  men  of  old,  a  Divine  language  finding  ex- 
pression in  human  lips  that  were  more  or  less 
,//^  able  to  give  it  utterance,  at  last  in  the  fulness 
of  time  came,  not  in  this  partial  and  fragmen- 
tary way,  lisping  in  alternate  exclamations  and 
silences,  but  embodied  in  a  Person  full  of 
grace  and  truth. 

When  we  realise  that  this  is  the  gist  of  the 
New  Testament  —  the  Word  of  God  is  incar- 
nate, and  men  have  "  beheld  His  glory,  glory  as 
of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father"  —  we  are 
compelled  to  face  some  very  searching  ques- 
tions which  suggest  themselves  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  present  inquiry.  We  have  been 
arguing  all  along  that  the  word  of  the  Lord 
comes  directly  as  a  message  from  God  to  the 
individual  soul,  and  that  this  immediate  com- 
munication is  the  condition  of  real  preaching. 
But  if  the  examples  we  have  examined  in  the 


THE    LOGOS.  79 

Old  Testament  belong  to  an  imperfect  and 
preparatory  stage  of  revelation ;  if  it  is  the 
mark  and  the  characteristic  of  those  kings  and 
prophets  in  that  elder  time  that  — 

Vainly  they  tried  the  deeps  to  sound 

E'en  of  their  own  prophetic  thought, 
When  of  Christ  crucified  and  crown'd 

His  Spirit  in  them  taught : 

But  He  their  aching  gaze  repressed, 

Which  sought  behind  the  veil  to  see. 
For  not  without  us  fully  blest 

Or  perfect  might  they  be  ;  ^ 

if  the  historic  Person  of  Jesus,  the  Christ,  was 

the  utterance  in  its  completeness  of  the  Wordj 

"    .  .         .  .  ' 

which  had  only  been  given  in  portions  before  ;| 

perhaps  we  may  be  driven  to  the  conclusion] 
that  with  the  Incarnation  the  prophetic  ele4  r' 
ment  in  religion  —  by  which  I  mean  the  imme- 
diate revelation  of  God  to  the  individual  soul, 
and  the  deliverance  of  a  messas^e  throu2:h  a 
human  mouthpiece  —  passed  away.  At  first 
sight  it   might  seem   that  the  absoluteness  of 

1  Christian  Year.     Thirteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 


8o    THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

the  truth,  that  Christ  is  the  Word  of  God, 
refutes  and  nulHfies  the  argument  of  the 
present  lectures. 

It  is  our  task  to-day  to  see  whether  this  first 
impression  is  correct.  The  only  way  of  deter- 
mining the  question  is  to  examine  the  New 
Testament  writings,  which,  following  the  In- 
carnation, furnish  us  with  the  clearest  view  of 
the  religious  experiences  to  be  expected  in  the 
new  era  created  by  the  coming  of  Christ.  But 
it  will  promote  clearness  in  the  inquiry  if  I 
state  beforehand  the  conclusion  to  which,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  we  shall  be  led.  We  shall 
find  that  the  first  impression  was  wrong.  The 
appearance  of  the  Word  in  the  flesh  was  not 
\  to  abolish  the^  proplietic  element,  but  to  make 
it  general,  by  realising  the  aspiration  of  the 
first  great  prophet,  "  Would  that  all  the  Lord  s 
people  were  prophets  !  "  The  Pers~on  of  Christ 
was  to  furnish  a  norm  or  type  of  what  each 
one  miolit  become  who  received  the  Word. 
Henceforth  there  would  always  be  an  effectual 
test  to  i)rove  whether  the  word  received  were 
a  word  of  God  or  not,  because  nothing  could 


PROPHETS  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.     8 1  y,ji^ 


^  M       f^ 


be  a  word  of  God  which  clashes  with  the  VT'T*^ 
Word  made  flesh.  Henceforth,  through  the 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  the  personality  of 
Christ  should  be  reproduced  in  the  believer, 
in  such  a  way  that  the  Christ-filled  soul  would 
speak  the  word  of  God ;  but  it  would  be  the 
utterance  or  expression  of  that  Divine  Person 
who  "in  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and 
the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God." 

So  far  from  the  new  order  nullifying  the  old 
prophetic  inspiration,  and  reducing  the  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  to  a  position  in  relation  to 
God  inferior  to  that  of  the  older  prophets,  it, 
as  one  might  have  expected,  fulfilled  and  real- 
ised the  promise  in  that  old  relation,  and  sub- 
stituted for  the  occasional  coming  of  the  Word 
to  a  few  favoured  individuals  at  exceptional 
times,  a  normal  state  for  believing  men  which 
could  thus  be  described  by  a  Christian  writer — 
"  the  word  of  the  Lord  dwelling  in  you  richly 
in  all  wisdom  ;  teaching  and  admonishing  one 
another  with  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts  unto 


82    THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

God"  (Col.  iii.  i6).  The  prophets  did  not 
cease  in  the  Christian  Church,  and  one  of  the 
earhest  documents  we  have  from  that  primitive 
society,  the  Didache,  or  Teachhig  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles,  reveals  to  us  the  constant  activity 
and  the  careful  reo^ulation  of  these  men  who 
received  the  word  from  God  to  deliver  to  the 
people/ 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  New  Testament 
writings  for  light  upon  this  subject. 

To  begin  with,  the  last  of  the  Prophets,  — 
the  Old  Testament  Prophets,  —  is  a  contem- 
porary of  Jesus.  Our  historian,  in  describing 
the  career  of  John  the  Baptist,  uses  the  famil- 
iar expression,  "  The  word  of  God  came  unto 
John  the  son  of  Zacharias  in  the  wilderness  " 
(Luke  iii.  2).  The  final  announcement  of  the 
coming  Messias,  of  the  One  who  already  stood 
among   the   people,  though  they  knew  it   not, 

1  Cf.  in  the  Didac/ie,  rot?  hi  TrpofjyrjTai^  iTTiTpiireTe  evxapiOT^lv 
oTa  OiXovcTLv  (chap,  x.),  vrept  §€  tu>v  ajrocrToXoiv  koI  7rpocf>r)T(hv 
Kara  to  8oy/xa  Tov  emyyeAtov  ovto)<;  TroLrjaarc  (chap,  xi.),  with 
which  compare  Luke  xi.  49;  Acts  xi.  27;  xiii.  i  ;  xv.  32;  xxi. 
10;   I  Cor.  xii.  28,  29;  xiv.  passim;  Eph.  ii.  20;  iii.  5  ;  iv.  11. 


CHRIST    GIVES    THE    WORD.  83 

was  a  word  coming  to  an  individual,  w^hom  all 
counted  as  a  prophet,  and  a  word  coming,  as 
\veJiaye_observed  it  often  does,  in  the  wilder-  h  ^ 
ness.  But  the  Incarnate  Word  of  God,  thus 
designated  by  the  word  of  God  that  came  to 
John,  does  not  immediately  appear  to  the 
world  as  The  Word.  On  the  contrary.  He 
speaks  the  word  much  as  the  prophets  spoke 
before  Him,  though  with  more  fulness.  We 
are  told  that  "  the  multitude  pressed  upon 
Him,  and  heard  the  word  of  God  "  (Luke  v.  i). 
He  speaks  of  His  teachmg  as  "  the  word  of 
God "  in  the  parable  of  the  Sower  and  the 
seed  (Luke  viii.  2) ;  and  He  counts  it  a  mark 
of  relationship  with  Him  to  hear  the  word  of 
God  and  to  do  it  (Luke  viii.  21),  for  to  hear 
the  word  of  God  and  to  keep  it  is  more 
blessed.  He  declares,  than  to  have  stood  to 
Him  in  the  beautiful  relation  of  mother 
(Luke  xi.  28).  It  would  seem  that  even  in 
that  clearer  revelation  of  Himself,  the  orist  of 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  He 
did  not  actually  describe  Himself  as  the  Word 
of  God,  though   His  relation  to  that  Word   is 


84  THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

not  obscurely  hinted  at  in  the  remarkable 
argument :  "  If  he  called  them  gods,  unto 
whom  the  word  of  God  came,  and  the  Scrip- 
ture cannot  be  broken,  say  ye  of  Him  whom 
the  Father  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world, 
Thou  blasphemest,  because  I  said,  I  am  the 
Son  of  God  ?  "  (John  x.  35,  36),  the  purport  of 
which  would  seem  to  be  that,  if  the  fragmen- 
tary reception  of  the  Word  which  came  to  the 
men  of  old  gave  them  a  certain  title  to  Divin- 
ity, He,  the  Son  of  God,  might  well  be  sup- 
posed to  have  the  word  of  God  in  its  fulness, 
and  to  express  it  perfectly. 
'  Still,  it  remains  true  that  the  Christ  "  after 
the  flesh  "  does  not,  while  He  is  in  the  flesh, 
stand  forth  before  the  world  as  the  Word  of 
God.  It  is  only  when  He  has  gone  away,  as  it 
was  expedient  for  Him  to  do,  that,  on  the  one 
hand.  He  appears  as  the  full-orbed  utterance 
of  God  in  His  historic  manifestation,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  throuQ^h  the  oift  of  the  Holv 
spirit,  a  way  is  provided  by  which  the  Word 
in  its  fulness  can  be  communicated  to  those 
who  believe. 


THE    HOLY    GHOST.  85 

The  main  body  of  the  New  Testament  writ-'; 
ings  is  occupied  with  this  twofold  theme  — 
how  Christ  is  the  Perfect  Wo^d  of  God,  and 
how  men  receiving  Him  receive  thb  wQrd,  and,  I 
reahsing  Him  inwardly,  are  filled  with  the 
word,  and,  proclaiming  Him,  declare  the  word 
of  God,  all  by  the  operation,  or  rather  the 
manifold  operations,  of  the   Holy  Spirit. 

It  is  of  course  true  to  say  that  holy  men  of 
old  spoke  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  even  more  specifically  "  searched 
what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
which  was  in  them  did  point  unto"  (i  Pet. 
i.  11),  but  the  signal  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
which  followed  the  departure  of  Christ  from 
the  earth  was  distinguished  from  those  earlier 
movements  of  the  Spirit  in  two  ways.  Eixst, 
it  was,  as  the  prophets  themselves  had  fore- 
seen, for  all  flesh,  and  not  for  a  favoured  few 
only ;  second,  it  had  a  specific  function  and 
mode  of  working.  It  was  the  result  of  the  ex- 
altation of  the  victorious  Saviour,  and  itself 
resulted  in  presenting  the  Saviour  to  the 
hearts  of  men,  the  Saviour  in  all  His  fulness, 


86    THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

as  the  rightful  Lord  of  the  human  heart  and 
of  the  human  race,  the  Sovereign  to  whom  all 
knees  should  bow. 

Accordingly  the  Apostles  thus  baptized 
from  on  high  manifested  a  new  and  remark- 
able power,  which  is  thus  described :  "  They 
were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  they 
spake  the  word  of  God  with  boldness."  ^  The 
precise  nature  of  that  word  is  presented  to  us 
not  only  in  their  speeches,  but  in  the  results 
of  that  Spiritual  ministry ;  and  it  is  very  in- 
structive to  notice  how  the  phrase  "  the  word 
of  God  "  is  used  in  the  narrative  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  The  apostles  regard  them- 
selves as  entrusted  with  a  SiaKovCa  rov  Xoyov 
Tov  ©eov,  a  service  of  the  word  of  God,  which 
they  must  prosecute  with  the  closest  atten- 
tion, free  from  the  ordinary  distractions  of 
business."  No  one  who  pays  attention  to  the 
subject  matter  of  the  Bible  can  suppose  that 
by  "  the  word  of  God "  is  here  meant  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures.  The  whole  story 
shows  that  what    the    apostles    intended    was, 

1  Acts  iv.  31.  ^  Acts  vi.  2,  4. 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    JESUS.  ^J 

that  close  relation  to  God  which  would  enableOw^^taA^'^  k/ 
them    to    receive    the    things    of    Christ    as    2i'zx>4o^i>^ 
speaking  message,  and    to  present  them  with"^,^"^''^^ 
boldness,  i.e.,  with  the  freedom  and  force  of  a  ^^  f^^^r^oM^ 
communication  coming  direct  from  God  to  the  XTJ^^TTT 
people.    The  word  of  God  was,  to  put  it  briefly,  ^J,A*^"^<^ 
the  w^itness  to  Jesus,  as  one  of  the  earliest  New 
Testament  writers  expresses  it,  the  one  "  who 
bare  witness  of  the  word  of  God   and  of  the 
testimony  of   Jesus  Christ,  even  of  all  things 
that  he  saw."^ 

And  this  passage,  we  may  observe  in  pass-(/c^«/^'*^>-*  u 
ing,  illustrates  the  truth,  that  in  the  new  Order  ^^^ 
no  less  than  in  the  old  the  word  of  God  would, 
on  occasion,  be  communicated  by  visions. 
PeterinlaJxance  would  receive  the  grand  truth 
that  the  Gospel  was  for  the  Gentiles  as  well  as 
for  the  Jews;  and  Paul  would,  in  ecstasy,  be 
caught  up  to  see  things,  which  might  not  be 
commnunicable  by  speech,  but  would  yet  give 
to  what  he  did  say  the  rare  impression  of  a 
heavenly  atmosphere  and  a  Divine  authority. 

But  to  return  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles : 

1  Rev.  i.  2,  9;  vi.  9;  xx.  4. 


8S  THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

it  was  this  word  of  God,  consisting  in  the 
testimony  of  Jesus,  that  constituted  the  Apos- 
toHc  message,  which  men  received  or  rejected, 
and  which  rolled  along  in  those  glad  and  glow- 
ing days  like  a  brimming  river  broadening  as 

\^A  y  it  flowed.^  It  was  not  a  written  document, 
,\  except  in  the  metaphorical  sense  that  it  was 
written  on  fleshy  tables  of  the  heart,  and  could 
be  said  to  permanently  abide  in  those  who 
genuinely  believed.^  It  was  not  a  message 
learned  by  rote.  It  was  not  the  announce- 
ment that  Jesus  was  the  Word.  But  it  was 
,  I "    that  immediate    and  conscious  reception  of  a 

■cirf>"^ 'Tword  from  God,  which,  though  the  actual 
burden  of  it  was  kept  within  the  limits  of  the 
Personality  and  the  historical  manifestation  of 
Jesus,  had  all  the  properties  of  a  new  commu- 
nication, leaping  out  as  a  sword  ^  from  the 
scabbard  to  cut  into  the  heart  of  the  hearer, 
and  to  separate,  to  distinguish,  to  convince, 
and  to  convert  by  its  penetrating  power. 

^  Acts  viii.  14;  xi.  i  ;  xiii.  7,  44,  46;  xix.  20. 
^  Sec  I  John  ii.  14. 

3  Eph.  vi.  17,   7'/ie  sword  of  tJic  Spirit,  luhich  is  the  word  of 
God. 


APOSTOLIC    PREACHING.  89 

No    theory   could    be    more    misleading,    or 
more  likely  to  devitalise   the    teaching  of  the 
New    Testament,    than    that   which    identifies /^  ^^^  ^  ^, 
the   "  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  of    God  "  '>^^  ^  ^ 
with   the   t^ext   of    Scripture.     The    most  pre-«,   ^  /^rtw 
vailing  word  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  was 
the  proclamation  of    Jesus,  the  Word  of  God,  ^^/jj;  ^<^^ 
not  the  quotation  of  Scripture.     And  though  <=j  h^f^  ^i.' 
it  is  true  that  the  Spirit  will  frequently  bring 
the  words   of    Scripture   to   the    mind    of   the 
Bible-reader,  words  not  contained  in  Scripture 
may  be  just  as  truly  given  by  the  Spirit,  as, 
for  example,  we  saw  in   the  last  lecture  that 
Mr.   Egerton   Young  received   from   God   the 
word,  "  I  know  where  all   your  dead  children 
are."     And  in  the  Acts  themselves,  it  was  just 
as    truly  a  word  of   God  which  came  to   the 
Evangelist,  when  — 

'Twas  silent  all  and  dead 
Beside  the  barren  sea, 
Where  Philip's  steps  were  led  — 
Led  by  a  voice  from  Thee  — 
He  rose  and  went,  nor  asked  Thee  why, 
Nor  stayed  to  heave  one  faithless  sigh,  — 


90  THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

,,,.  that,  I  say,  was  just  as  much  a  word  of  God  as 
the  speech  he  gave  to  the  Eunuch  shortly  after, 
when  "  he  opened  his  mouth,  and  beginning 
from  that  Scripture,  preached  unto  him  Jesus." 
But  if  we  would  rightly  apprehend  from  the 
inside  what  the    coming   of   the   word   of  the 

>j  <  Lord  to  a  Christian   must    mean,  it  is   neces- 

sary to  study  the  writings  of  St.  Paul.  His 
mind  and  its  manifold  operations  are  laid  bare 
to  us  with  a  singular  fulness  in  his  letters. 
And  though  it  may  be  true  that  there  are 
things  in  the  letters  which  are  hard  to  be 
understood,  the  man  himself  and  the  contact 
between  him  and  his  God,  the  communication 
he  received  from  Heaven,  and  the  measure 
of  Christ,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  in 
which  it  was  all  delivered,  are  precisely  the 
elements  which  can  be  easily  apprehended  by 
a  tolerably  careful  reader.  It  is  very  evident 
.  that  whatever  knowledge  St.  Paul  possessed 
.^  (  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  Gospels,  he  made 

^iy^i    little  or  no  use  of  it.     It  is  almost  equallv  evi- 

VaaJ         ■ 

J^^,dent,  though  it  would  take  us  too  far  afield  to 
^AK  ty«^-  show  it  in  detail  to  one  who  was  disposed  to 


ST.    PAUL.  91 

question  it,  that  though  he  constantly  quotes 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  he  does  not 
derive  his  message  from  them.  Quite  the 
contrary,  he  forces  them  to  give  his  message. 
So  absolutely  sure  is  he  of  the  word  which  he 
has  to  deliver,  that  he  is  very  apt  to  quote 
from  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  language 
which  supports  his  teaching,  without  any 
inquiry  whether  he  is  expressing  the  thought 
of  his  authorities.  From  first  to  last,  from  the 
Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians,  on  to  the  dis- 
puted Pastoral  Letters,  it  is  clear  that  St. 
Paul  is^  declaring  what  he  has  derived  from 
God  at  first  hand.  This,  indeed,  is  the  note 
of  his  writing.  It  is  the  comparative  absence 
of  this  note  more  than  anything  else  which 
leads  us  to  question  the  authenticity  of  some 
among  the  letters.  It  is  this  which  has  led 
the  Church  to  treat  the  J^auline  Literature  as 
Revelation.  In  St.  Paul  you  have  in  a  marked 
degree,  and  can  observe  almost  at  leisure,  the 
word  of  the  Lord  coming  to  a  man,  to  a 
Christian  man,  and  in  Christian  forms.  It 
will   not  be   necessary  to  make  an   exhaustive 


92  THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

study  of  the  Letters,  for  a  few  selected  exam- 
ples  will    bring    up   before    your    minds   what 
must  be  indeed  familiar  to  every  Bible-reader, 
Take  a  passage  from  the  earliest  letter  which 
has  come  down  to  us.     Forgive  me  if  I  trans- 
late it  with  a  bald  literalness  which  will  per- 
haps  emphasise   its    significance.      "  We   give 
thanks  to   God,"  he  says,  "without    intermis- 
sion, because  you,  having  received  the  word  — 
in  hearing  from  us  —  of  God,  accepted  it   not 
as  a  word  from  human  minds,  but  as  what  it 
really  is,  the  word  of  God,  which  also  works  in 
you    that    believe."  ^      There    is    no    uncertain 
sound    about    that.      The    word    of    God    had 
come  direct   to   the  speaker,  and  he  expected 
the  hearer  to  recognise  it  as   God's,  and  not 
man's  ;  and,  speaking  now  to  those  who  believe, 
he  looks  for  their  confirmation  of  the  claim  he 
makes  in  the  experience  which  they  have  had 
of  this  energising  word  within  themselves. 

Strono:  and  distinct  as  is  his  claim  to  have 
received  the  word  himself,  he  does  not  wish  to 
make  an  exclusive   claim ;   he   is   best  pleased 

^  I  Thess.  ii.  13. 


ST.    PAUL.  93 

when  his  converts  have  so  opened  their  ears 
that  they  can  perceive  the  word  of  God  for 
themselves ;  when,  as  St.  John  would  phrase 
it,  they  would  not  need  any  one  to  teach  them, 
because  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  One' would 
be  within  them.  And  how  entirely  absorbed 
he  is  in  the  conviction  of  this  inward  commu- 
nication to  himself,  he  shows  at  the  close  of 
this  Epistle,  where  he  delivers  the  remarkable 
forecast  about  the  course  of  the  resurrection 
"by  the  word  of  the  Lord"  (i  Thess.  iv.  15),  a 
forecast  which  certainly  implies  that  the  word 
which  came  to  him  was  as  clear  and  specific  as 
a  voice  speaking  in  his  ear. 

There  is  another  expression  in  those  early 
letters  to  Thessalonica  which  shows  that 
already  to  the  imagination  of  St.  Paul  this 
Word  of  the  Lord,  communicated  inwardly, 
was  assuming  an  objective  body  of  reality,  as 
if  it  were  a  living  force  working  from  without 
upon  human  souls,  "  The  word  of  God,  which 
liveth  and  abideth,"  ^  according  to  St.  Peter's 
phrase.     This    expression    also    from    its   very 

1 1  Pet.  i.  23. 


1 


94    THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

form  suggests  how  closely  the  word  of  God 
was  in  the  Apostle's  mind  identified  with  the 
person  of  Christ,  the  nimbus,  the  aureole,  the 
halo,  with  which  He  Himself  comes  always 
enswathed.  The  expression  I  refer  to  is  that 
in  2  Thess.  iii.  i,  "  Pray  that  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  may  run  and  be  glorified,  even  as  [it  ran] 
towards  you  [and  was  glorified]  ;  "  so  true  is 
it  that  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  in  the  New 
Testament,  has  ceased  to  be  a  mere  breath, 
or  emanation,  a  broken  fragment  of  speech  — 
fragmentarily  received  —  it  is  angther_term  for 
the  whole  Godhead  as  revealed  to  men. 

The  secret  of  this  experience  is  partially 
explained  in  the  autobiographic  passage  of  a 
letter  written  a  little  later  —  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians.  The  Church  has  never  failed  to 
marvel  at  the  boldness  —  or,  as  she  at  first 
thought  it,  the  effrontery  —  of  St.  Paul's  claim, 
that  he  received  "his  gospel"  not  from  man, 
not  from  the  apostles,  but  immediately, 
"  through  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."  It  cer- 
tainly is  very  amazing  to  find  a  man  —  a  con- 
temporary of  Jesus,  who  did   not  know  Him 


GALATIANS.  95 

personally,  and  after  His  death  spent  some 
months  in  resisting  His  claims  and  persecut- 
ing His  followers  —  presuming  to  stand  up 
and  oppose  the  men  who  were  the  compan- 
ions of  His  life,  the  witnesses  of  His  death, 
and  the  special  depositaries  of  His  commis- 
sion. The  thrilling  interest  of  the  first  two 
chapters  of  Galatians  lies  in  this,  that  they 
inform  us  in  the  words  of  the  man  himself 
how  this  extraordinary  position  was  assumed. 
From  the  very  first,  it  seems,  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  to  him  directly  —  and  it  came  full- 
orbed,  for  it  came  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ 
"  revealed  within  him."  Whether  Ananias 
spoke  to  him,  and  the  experiences  of  Damas- 
cene Christians  were  in  his  ear,  or  he  was  in 
solitude,  in  the  city  or  the  desert,  meditating 
over  the  inner  revelation,  it  was  all  one ;  the 
word  of  the  Lord  was  in  him,  and  he  found 
his  real  illumination  in  patiently  listening  to 
Him  who  was  speaking  from  heaven,  until 
he  could  issue  from  the  place  of  the  oracle 
with  a  prjixa  XpLorrov^  indeed  to  deliver,  and 

^  Rom.  X.  17. 


96  THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

a  full  body  of  doctrine  and  prophecy  which 
he  had  received,  and  was  ever  afresh  "  receiv- 
ing," as  he  puts  it,  "from  the  Lord."  His 
confidence  is  overmastering — the  revelation 
is  so  distinct  and  irresistible,  that  he  bears 
down  with  an  almost  tyrannous  strength  on 
those  whose  convictions  were  obtained  only 
at  second-hand :  "  What,  was  it  from  you  that 
the  word  of  God  went  forth  ?  or  came  it  unto 
you  alone  ?  If  any  man  thinketh  himself  to 
be  a  prophet,  or  spiritual,  let  him  take  knowl- 
edge of  the  things  which  I  write  unto  you, 
that  they  are  the  commandment  of  the  Lord."^ 
And  though  he  clearly  recognises  that  it  is 
possible  to  receive  the  word  of  the  Lord  cor- 
rectly, and  yet  to  deliver  it  inaccurately  and  in 
a  perverted  form,  he  is  quite  clear  in  his  own 
conscience  upon  that  subject :  "  We  are  not  as 
the  many,  corrupting  the  word  of  God ;  but  as 
of  sincerity,  as  of  God,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
speak  we  in  Christ;"  "not  walking  in  crafti- 
ness, nor  handling  the  word  of  God  deceitfully, 
but   by  the    manifestation   of   the   truth   com- 

^  I  Cor.  xiv.  36,  37. 


CORINTHIANS.  97 

mending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God."^ 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  we  obtain 
a  new  light  on  the  amazing  figure  of  speech 
several  times  employed  by  St.  Paul,  that  the 
true  Christian  —  and  the  Apostle  speaks  from 
his  own  experience  —  is  a  Temple  of  God. 
The  figure  only  ceases  to  be  amazing  to  us 
because  we  only  imperfectly  realise  what  the 
Temple  was  in  Judaism ;  nor  can  we  very 
much  help  out  our  imagination  by  even  the 
most  exaggerated  estimate  of  sacred  buildings 
that  prevails  In  Christendom ;  the  Catholic 
veneration  for  a  cathedral  is  but  a  poor  and 
semi-pagan  reflection  of  what  the  Jew  felt 
for  the  Temple.  It  was  the  one  place  where 
God  appeared ;  here  must  every  sacrifice  be 
offered ;  jealously  guarded  even  by  the  penalty 
of  death  from  every  alien  Intrusion,  it  could  be 
served  only  by  ministrants  who  were  abso- 
lutely pure ;  In  Its  sombre  chamber,  lighted 
only  by  the  seven-branched  candlestick  and 
the    dull   glow    of    the    altar   of   incense,    the 

1  2  Cor.  ii.  17;  iv.  i. 


98  THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

thoughts  were  turned  to  that  which  was 
behind  the  veil,  the  Holy  of  Holies,  where 
the  light  was  the  immediate  shining  of  God, 
and  the  written  Law  w^as  covered  with  an 
interpreting  spirit,  and  supplemented  by  the 
Urim  and  Thummim,  the  Lights  and  the  Per- 
fections of  a  lively  oracle  that  directed  the  in- 
quiring priest.  Such  a  temple  St.  Paul  claimed 
to  be,  and  required  his  converts  to  become. 
His  own  body  was  the  only  temple  of  worship 
he  knew ;  there  every  sacrifice  had  to  be 
offered  that  God  could  claim  ;  sanctified  and 
purified,  all  alien  thoughts  excluded,  it  alone 
could  be  the  scene  of  Divine  manifestation ; 
intrinsically  dark  and  blind,  receiving  all  its 
illumination  from  the  sevenfold  spirit,  it  yet 
contained  behind  the  veil,  if  the  persistent 
Will  would  wait  and  penetrate  it,  a  veritable 
Shekinah,  a  voice  that  spoke,  an  immediate 
communion  with  God.  There  were  the  inex- 
haustible stores  of  revelation ;  and  the  dis- 
tracted, persecuted  man  had  learnt  to  rejoice 
in  the  shaking  of  many  established  things, 
the  threatened  destruction  of  the  Temple  on 


THE    TEMPLE    OF    GOD.  99 

Mount  Zion,  the  insufficiency  of  the  Ancient 
Law,  the  disadvantage  of  not  knowing  Christ 
after  the  flesh,  the  constant  sufferings  incurred 
in  the  task  of  preaching  Christ  as  he  did  know 
Him,  because  everything  had,  in  God's  hands, 
worked  towards  this  great  consummation,  that 
the  word  of  God  was  communicated  to  him 
within,  the  word  of  God  rounded  out  into  the 
fulness  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  Now  I  rejoice  in  my 
sufferings  for  your  sake,"  he  exclaims,  "  and 
fill  up,  on  my  part,  that  which  is  lacking  of 
the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His 
body's  sake,  which  is  the  Church ;  whereof  I 
was  made  a  minister,  according  to  the  dispen- 
sation of  God  w^iich  was  given  me  to  you- 
ward,  to  fulfil  the  word  of  God,  even  the 
mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  all  ages 
and  generations,  but  now  hath  it  been  mani- 
fested to  His  saints,  to  whom  God  was  pleased 
to  make  known  what  is  the  riches  of  the  glory 
of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles,  which  is 
Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory."  ^ 

It    is   plain    that    St.  Paul  would   not  have 

1  Col.  i.  24-27. 


lOO   THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

regarded  himself  as  a  minister  of  the  Church 
at  all  if  he  had  simply  been  a  priest,  dealing 
with  opera  operata  and  mechanical  mysteries. 
Hardly  more  valuable  would  he  have  esteemed 
a  ministry  which  consisted  in  the  diligent 
study  and  proclamation  of  a  creed  or  the  elo- 
quent reproduction  of  other  men's  experiences. 
What  he  regarded  as  essential  to  a  genuine 
ministry  was  an  open  vision  obtained  in  the 
secret  chamber  of  the  inner  life,  Christ  within 
as  the  hope  of  glory,  a  word  of  God,  genuine 
and  authentic,  to  be  there  received,  and  faith- 
fully fulfilled — fulfilled,  we  may  suppose,  in 
the  effectual  delivery  of  it,  so  that  it  might, 
according  to  the  phraseology  of  the  Acts, 
"  grow  and  prevail "  ^  —  grow  like  a  living  seed 
that  is  put  into  appropriate  soil,  and  be  strong 
like  a  tree  that  is  rooted,  and  produces  the 
miracle  of  fruit. 

We  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  fact 
and  the  manner  of  the  word  of  the  Lord 
coming  to  St.  Paul,  because  his  own  letters 
give  us   a  deeper  insight   into  his  experience 

^  Acts  xix.  20. 


OTHER    APOSTLES    LIKE    PAUL.  lOI 

than  we  can  gain  into  the  psychological  phe- 
nomena of  other  New  Testament  writers.  But 
it  is  very  important  to  realise  that  St.  Paul 
was  not  exceptional.  The  other  Apostolic 
men  had  the  same  resources,  the  same  open 
vision,  the  same  authentic  note,  the  same  proof 
of  their  ministry. 

Is  it  possible,  in  the  light  of  what  St.  Paul 
reveals  of  himself,  to  press  a  little  closer,  and 
to  realise  more  distinctly  still  those  communi- 
cations, which  came  to  the  men,  which  were 
delivered  with  more  or  less  fulness  in  their 
preaching  and  writings,  and  have  come  down 
to  us  in  the  volume  of  the  New  Testament } 

In  pausing  and  meditating  on  this  question, 
we  must  be  careful  not  to  limit  the  experience 
of  those  favoured  men  by  our  own  experience 
to-day ;  for,  though  we  can  only  interpret 
theirs  by  our  own,  it  may  be  of  the  last  im- 
portance for  us  to  recognise  how  far  theirs  sur- 
passed ours,  because  theirs  is  set  before  us  as 
the  Qcoal  of  attainment  to  which  we  must 
constantly  aspire.  Why  should  we  be  so  eager 
to  eliminate   the   Supernatural  ?     The  Super- 


I02       THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

natural  is  precisely  what  we  want  now  and  for 
ourselves. 

This,  then,  would  seem  to  be  the  psycho- 
logical experience  of  the  apostles  which  gave 
the  demonstration  and  power  to  their  preach- 
ing, and  the  victorious  impulse  to  their  work : 
—  They  had  before  them  a  great  historic  fact, 
which  was  the  fulfilment  of  a  long  historic  prep- 
aration. The  Christ  had  come.  He  had 
lived,  suffered,  and  died,  and  from  the  height 
of  His  ascension  had  sent  a  new  spiritual 
Power  to  be  received  by  those  who  obeyed 
Him.  They  had  obeyed,  and  had  received  the 
Spirit.  This  meant  an  inward  re-creation, 
which  it  is,  thank  God,  easier  to  experience 
than  to  describe.  It  meant,  for  one  thing,  a 
life  following  on  a  death  and  resurrection  in 
the  manner  of  their  Lord's,  that  is  to  say,  a 
sense,  acquired  through  faith,  of  their  own 
inner  nature  beino^  crucified,  and  nailed  dead 
to  the  Cross,  and  of  a  new  creation  emerging 
from  this  inner  tomb,  a  creation  in  the  like- 
ness of  Christ  Jesus.  But  it  meant,  further,  a 
life  lived  day  by  day  which  could  only  be  called 


THE    MANNER    OF    APOSTOLIC    REVELATION.        I03 

a  resurrection  life,  a  life  inwardly  cleansed 
from  sin,  a  life  in  which  every  thought  was 
brought  into  subjection  to  Christ,  a  life  which 
was  characterised  by  a  sustained  emotion  of 
love  to  God  and  to  man,  like  the  tides  of  a 
fountain  which  flow  continually  and  never  fail. 
Now  in  this  cleansed  inner  life,  lived  by 
faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  not  unnaturally  new 
powers  were  developed;  spiritual  things  became 
strong  and  even  dominant,  while  the  things 
which  are  seen  lost  relatively  their  importance ; 
the  spiritual  vision  of  God  became  calm  and 
clear,  and  the  turmoil  without  could  not  drown 
the  voice  within ;  the  wide  misery  of  the  world 
appeared  clearly  as  a  want  of  God,  the  remedy 
for  the  misery  lay  in  the  removal  of  sin  and 
the  recovery  of  the  inward  vision  which  results 
from  the  inward  victory ;  the  serene  assurance 
of  Christ,  and  His  complete  sufficiency  to  cope 
with  the  disastrous  consequences  of  sin,  embold- 
ened and  strengthened  this  "inner  man,"  while 
the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  the  heart 
impelled  them  to  seek  and  to  save  the  victims 
of  sin :  hence  came  the  secret  of  a  new  power, 


I04   THE  WORD  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

a  twin  birth  with  the  secret  of  a  deeper  knowl- 
edge. Under  these  circumstances,  not  only 
did  the  will  act  in  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God,  but  the  mind,  brought  into  subjection  to 
Christ,  moved  as  the  mind  of  Christ.  The 
thoughts  which  arose  in  their  understanding, 
and  shaped  themselves  into  connected  argu- 
ments, were,  quite  consciously,  not  their 
thoughts,  but  His.  If  it  was  desirable  to 
correct  these  subjective  impressions  by  the 
words  that  He  had  spoken  in  the  flesh,  it  was 
not  necessary,  nor  was  it  always  possible. 
The  Spirit  within  took  of  the  things  of  Christ 
and  revealed  them,  with  a  more  immediate 
authority  and  a  more  trustworthy  guarantee 
against  mistakes  than  could  be  yielded  by  any 
traditions  or  documents  of  the  Master's  earthly 
life.  Thus  some  of  these  men  openly  declared 
that  they  no  longer  knew  Christ  after  the  flesh, 
but  could  follow  unquestioningly  the  command- 
ments which  came  to  them  from  Him  in  the 
Spirit. 

Born   again,   cleansed,  surrendered,  enlight- 
ened, they  were  able  to  receive  the  Word  of 


SUCH    REVELATION    STILL    POSSIBLE.  IO5 

God  in  their  heai*ts,  and  to  deliver  it  with 
astonishing  results,  of  which  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  preserve  some  striking  examples,  and 
to  which  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  give  a 
constant  witness.  Signs  and  wonders  were 
wrought.  God-filled  men  were  able  to  bring 
the  powers  of  God  into  contact  with  death  and 
disease,  with  doubt  and  opposition,  with  sorrow 
and  shame  and  sin,  and  to  show  that  in  all 
these  things  God  in  them  was  the  Conqueror. 

Now,  without  pressing  any  further  this  illus- 
tration of  our  theme,  derived  from  the  New 
Testament  writings,  it  is  legitimate  to  observe, 
and  indeed  no  one  will  be  inclined  to  dispute, 
that  the  one  condition  of  success  in  all  the 
ministry  of  the  Word  to-day  is  the  repetition 
of  the  experience  which  the  first  apostles  en- 
joyed. We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be 
misled  by  the  wholly  unscriptural  dogma  that 
what  happened  to  the  apostles  must  not  be 
expected  to  happen  to  us.  Their  own  words 
are  a  sufficient  refutation  of  this  baseless  and 
ignoble  theory:  they  desired  that  we  should 
be  imitators  of  them,  and  that  we  should  be  in 


I06       THE    WORD    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

all  points  such  as  they,  because  they  knew  that 
the  continuance  of  the  work  after  their  death 
would  entirely  depend  on  other  men  arising  — 
successors  to  the  apostles  indeed  —  who  would 
press  as  they  had  done  into  the  inner  circle  of 
the  oracle,  who  would  receive  as  they  had  done 
the  authentic  word  of  God  from  God  Himself, 
and  would  declare  this  Word  of  God,  as  they 
had  done,  not  in  the  deadness  of  the  letter,  but 
in  the  fulness  of  the  spirit,  that  it  might  "  grow 
and  be  multiplied  "  (Acts  xii.  24),  each  new  be- 
liever becoming  a  new  organ  of  the  Spirit,  and 
each  new  preacher  receiving  the  office  of  a 
prophet.  In  this  way  they  had  learned  Christ, 
the  perfect  Word  of  God,  not  as  a  peculiar 
treasure  for  themselves  to  possess  and  to 
manipulate,  but  as  a  vast  treasure  open  to 
all,  a  living  source  of  life  and  instruction  and 
power  which  every  believer  might  humbly 
approach  and  appropriate,  and  every  veritable 
preacher  might  administer  and  dispense. 

Gentlemen,  I  would  commend  to  you   this 
Apostolic  Succession. 


LECTURE   IV. 


LECTURE    IV. 

THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

After  examining  in  the  two  previous  lec- 
tures the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  in 
order  to  comprehend  "  the  coming  of  the  word 
of  the  Lord  "  to  the  "  holy  men  of  old,"  it  is 
well  for  us  to  put  the  question,  How  are  we  to 
regard,  in  what  place  are  we  to  put,  in  what 
manner  are  we  to  treat,  the  whole  Book,  or 
Bible,  which  has  often  been  called,  by  a 
careless  inexactness  of  speech,  "  The  Word  of 
God"?  Or,  to  put  it  more  tersely,  the  subject 
of  the  present  lecture  is,  "  The  Preacher  and 
the  Bible." 

The  habit  of  calling  the  Canon  of  Sacred 
Scripture  the  Word  of  God,  a  term  so  signifi- 
cant and  so  unique,  a  term  employed  so  speci- 
fically in  more  than  one  place  to  describe  the 

109 


no        THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

Saviour  Himself,  is  likely  to  give  rise,  and  has 
often  given  rise,  to  serious  misconceptions. 
There  is  no  authority  for  the  usage  in  the 
Bible  itself  —  even  a  very  ordinary  attention 
to  the  character  and  composition  of  the  Book 
shows  that  the  designation  is  quite  inappro- 
priate—  and  to  confuse  the  understanding  of 
believers  and  unbelievers  by  treating  elements 
which  are  obviously  and  characteristically 
human  as  if  they  were  characteristically  and 
authoritatively  Divine,  is  to  cast  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  way  of  the  weak  and  the  igno- 
rant. 

I  say  there  is  no  foundation  in  the  Bible 
itself  for  the  common  practice  of  speaking  of  it 
as  the  Word  of  God.  Boldly  challenge  those 
who  thoughtlessly  employ  the  term.  Ask 
them.  What  reason  have  you  for  the  presuppo- 
sition, what  support  in  Scripture,  what  assur- 
ance of  prophet  or  apostle,  what  hint  of  the 
Lord  Himself,  that  this  collection  of  writings 
may  be  fitly  described  by  so  august  a  name  ? 
Startled  as  many  good  people  are  by  the  ques- 
tion, they  yet,  if  they  are  honest,  are  bound  to 


THE    TWO    TO    BE    DISTINGUISHED.  I  I  I 

admit  that  the  usage  is  without  Scriptural 
authority;  if  they  are  dishonest,  they  angrily 
turn  upon  those  who  put  the  question  and 
denounce  them  as  infidels. 

An  examination  of  the  Bible  itself  shows 
that  the  authors  of  the  books,  which  compose 
it,  did  not  dream  of  making  the  claim  that 
what  they  were  writing  was  written  by  God,  or 
spoken  by  God.  Again  and  again,  from  Gen- 
esis to  Revelation,  things  are  recorded  which 
came  to  prophets  and  kings  and  apostles  as 
the  word  of  God,  but  never  does  an  author  hint 
that  his  book,  as  such,  is  the  immediate  utter- 
ance of  God.  Even  Jeremiah  —  to  take  a 
salient  example,  as  he  is  the  greatest  of  the 
prophets  —  even  Jeremiah,  who  tells  us  so  un- 
hesitatingly that  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
him,  saying,  "  Write  thee  all  the  words  that  I 
have  spoken  unto  thee  in  a  book  "  (Jer.  xxx.  2), 
does  not  for  a  moment  suggest  that  all  the 
words  in  his  book  were  spoken  to  him  by  the 
Lord ;  he  does  not,  for  example,  imply  that 
the  sorrowful  cry  of  his  distressed  Jieart,  "  O 
Lord,  Thou  hast  deceived  me,  and   I  was  de- 


112   THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

ceived  "  (Jer.  xx.  7),  was  a  word  spoken  to  him 
by  the  Lord ;  he  trusted  to  the  sagacity  of  the 
reader,  never  dreaming  of  the  cult  of  BibHolatry 
which  was  to  be  the  strange  birth  of  time,  to 
perceive  that  this  was  spoken  to  the  Lord  by 
him,  and  not  by  the  Lord  through  him. 

But  if  the  Book  of  Jeremiah,  which  teems 
with  "  the  word  of  the  Lord,"  cannot  with  ex- 
actness be  described  by  that  title  itself,  how 
much  less  can  we  apply  the  title  to  historical 
books,  which,  for  all  their  Divine  teaching  and 
imperishable  value,  betray  on  every  page  the 
characteristics  of  human  historical  composition, 
or  to  such  a  mixed  literature  as  is  comprised 
in  the  Hagiographa,  ranging  down  from  in- 
spired Psalms,  in  which  the  Divine  Spirit 
pants  and  cries  audibly  in  a  human  song,  to 
the  graceful  pessimism  of  Ecclesiastes,  where 
the  human  spirit,  groping  after  God,  hardly 
attains  to  a  questioning  recognition  of  His 
wisdom  and  authority  ? 

The  loose  and  careless  habit  of  describing 
the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  is  more  than 
any  other  single  cause  responsible  for  the  in- 


INFIDELITY  RESULTS  FROM  THE  CONFUSION.       II  3 

fidel  literature  which  has  flooded  the  Protes- 
tant world  in  the  last  century  and  the  pres- 
ent. Poor  Tom  Paine  shattered  his  soul,  and 
made  shipwreck  of  faith,  in  a  frenzied  protest 
against  the  obvious  error,  and  was  met  by 
the  sleek  orthodoxy  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury with  loathing  and  vituperation.  I  have 
in  my  possession  a  volume  entitled  God 
and  His  Book,  written  by  a  living  author  who 
is  treading  in  the  stony  path  of  Paine  and 
plunging  down  the  same  hopeless  precipice. 
Starting  with  the  unthinking  dogma  of  ortho- 
doxy that  the  Bible  as  such  is  the  Word  of 
God,  he  has  little  difliculty  in  culling  in- 
numerable passages  which  present,  on  that 
showing,  insuperable  objections ;  passages  the 
ascription  of  which  to  the  mouth  or  the  fin- 
ger of  God  is  indeed  a  kind  of  blasphemy; 
and  then,  involved  in  these  sinuous  toils  by 
the  inconsiderate  error  of  Christendom,  he 
writhes  and  shrieks  until  the  heart  of  the 
true  Christian  sickens  with  pity  and  sorrow 
for  him. 

It  should  be  part  of  the  obligation  to  truth 


114       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

which  every  Hving  preacher  feels  laid  upon 
him,  to  deliver  the  Church  from  the  con- 
fusion, and  the  mischief,  and  the  error, 
which  have  been  incurred  by  this  one  base- 
less notion  that  a  Book  written  by  human  pens 
and  handed  down  by  human  methods,  trans- 
cribed, translated,  compiled,  by  fallible  human 
minds,  is  or  can  be,  as  such,  the  Word  of 
God. 

But  having  guarded  ourselves  against  this 
common  error,  we  may  turn  to  the  more  con- 
genial task  of  marking  what  the  Bible  is.  It  is, 
to  put  it  briefly,  the  sacred  and  inspired  record 
of  the  Word  of  God,  which  came,  as  we  saw 
in  the  two  previous  lectures,  during  the  course 
of  ages,  to  the  chosen  leaders  of  God's  chosen 
people,  to  the  faultless  Person,  who  Himself 
perfectly  embodied  it,  and  to  the  immediate 
witnesses  of  His  historic  manifestation,  who  in 
testifying  to  Jesus  Christ  were  testifying  to  the 
Word  of  God  in  its  final  fulness  and  progres- 
sive potency. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  show  that  the 
record  of  such  a  gradual,  age-long  coming  of 


THE    SUPREME    VALUE    OF    THE    BIBLE.        II5 

the  word  of  the  Lord  to  men  deserves  and 
demands  the  close  and  constant  study  of  every 
one  who  in  the  present  day  and  to  his  own 
generation  is  called  to  deliver  the  word  of  God. 
Nay  more,  it  would  seem  to  be,  as  a  general 
rule,  a  condition  laid  down  by  God  Himself 
that,  if  we  would  hear  Him  speaking  to  us 
now,  we  should  first  study,  understand,  and 
assimilate  this  great  historic  word  which  He 
spoke  to  the  fathers.  The  "  word  "  that  has 
been  given  from  of  old  is  the  lamp  to  our  feet, 
even  when  we  are  climbing  the  mount  of 
vision,  and  entering  at  the  perilous  portal  of 
the  oracle  where  God  speaks  face  to  face  with 
His  servant. 

Every  true  preacher  must  therefore  be  an 
earnest  Bible  student.  He  must  spare  no 
pains,  and  neglect  no  method,  to  master  and 
grasp  the  Book.  He  must  know  what  it  is ; 
he  must  know  what  it  is  not.  He  must  learn 
what  it  contains  ;  he  must  learn  what  it  neces- 
sarily does  not  contain.  He  must  enter  into  it 
with  such  a  living  and  realising  appreciation 
that  he  treads  firmly  in  its  multifarious  paths, 


Il6       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

and  can  perceive  where  the  human  blends 
with  the  Divine,  how  God  is  speaking  in 
human  voices,  and  how  the  distinction  is  to 
be  made  between  the  authentic  Word  of  God 
and  the  language  of  man  in  which  it  must  be 
expressed. 

It  is   a  mighty  task,   this   of  the  preacher ! 
The  cry  in  his  soul  is  always  — 

Show  me  thy  favoured  haunt,  Eternal  Voice, 

The  region  of  thy  choice. 
Where,  undisturbed  by  sin  and  earth,  the  soul 

Owns  Thy  entire  control. 

And  he  knows,  from  the  experience  of  fifty 
generations,  and  by  an  instinct  which  has 
come  to  him  in  the  familiar  handling  of  the 
page  from  childhood,  that  the  mountain  range, 
whence  the  prospect  is  given  to  his  view, 
where  the  caves  of  God  afford  shelter  to  the 
listening  soul,  and  the  interests  and  preoccupa- 
tions of  earth  pass  into  the  atmosphere  and 
revelation  of  Heaven,  is  this  Book,  which  is 
put  into  his  hand  by  his  mother,  and  lies 
closer  and  closer  to  his  heart  every  day,  until 


THE    PREACHER    A    BIBLE    STUDENT.         II7 

from  one  or  another  of  its  exalted  rock-ledges 
he  passes  into  the  open  vision  of  God. 

Many  of  the  greatest  preachers  have  found 
the  Bible  so  inexhaustible  that  they  have  laid 
aside  all  other  books,  and  meditated  in  this 
Law  day  and  night.  Mistaken  as  this  course 
may  be,  it  need  afford  little  ground  for  wonder. 
To  understand  the  Bible  is  a  task  for  a  life- 
time ;  Bible  reading  leads  to  Bible  study ; 
Bible  study  leads  to  absorption  in  the  Bible. 
And  though  we  may  feel  it  necessary  to  main- 
tain, that  in  order  to  understand  the  Bible  many 
other  books  must  be  read,  and  a  thousand  re- 
lated paths  of  inquiry  must  be  pursued,  we 
may  very  safely  propound  it  as  a  principle  for 
the  preacher  that  the  Bible  shall  be  the  Arx  or 
crowning  Areopagus  of  his  mental  life,  so  that 
all  studies  group  themselves  as  subordinate 
shrines  and  dwellings  around  it,  so  that  all  in- 
quiries start  from  it,  and  return  laden  to  it  again. 

Or  to  use  a  figure  which  emerged  in  the 
previous  lecture,  if  the  preacher  is  to  regard 
himself  as  a  living  temple  of  God's  self-mani- 
festation,  with    a    Holy  of    Holies  where    the 


Il8       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

traffic  between  him  and  his  God  goes  on,  then 
in  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  and  under  the 
shelter  of  the  Cherubim  shall  be  hidden  the 
Bible,  as  his  tables  of  the  Law.  With  his 
eyes  on  this  Book  he  will  most  frequently  be 
aware  of  the  Divine  Presence,  and  through 
these  familiar  words  flushing  up  into  new 
meaning,  meaning  ever  new  and  more  surpris- 
ing, with 

Magic  as  of  morn 
Bursting  for  ever  newly-born 

On  forests  old, 
Waking  a  hoary  world  forlorn 
With  touch  of  gold, 

he  shall  ao^ain  and  ao^ain  hear  the  creatinsf 
voice  of  God,  the  soft  pleadings  of  the  Divine 
heart,  the  deep  breathings  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  Book  will  not  be  superseded, —  other 
truths  will  grow,  but  their  germs  will  be  found 
there.  New  knowledge  will  be  gathered,  but 
it  will  only  interpret  the  old.  He  began  with 
the  Bible,  and  such  is  its  quality,  its  Divine 
quality,  that  he  will  end  with  it. 

The  rest  of  this  lecture,  then,  may  well  be 


THE    PREACHER    A    BIBLE    STUDENT.  II9 

bestowed  on  six  of  the  many  related  ways  in 
which  the  Hfe-long  Bible  study  may  be  pursued. 
They  shall  be  enumerated  and  then  elucidated. 
First,  there  is  what  we  may  call  simple  Con- 
cordance work.  Second,  there  is  Introduction 
work,  or  the  careful  study  of  a  book  at  a  time. 
Third,  there  is  the  systematic  reading  of  the 
book  as  a  whole.  Fourth,  there  is  the  scholar's 
work,  philological  and  exegetical.  Fifth,  there 
is  the  critic's  work.  Lastly,  and  supremely, 
there  is  the  devotional  use  of  the  book.  All 
these  ways  of  Bible  assimilation  may,  and 
should,  blend  with  one  another.  No  one  who 
is  to  teach  can  safely  dispense  with  any  of 
them  —  and,  strictly  speaking,  the  spirit  of  the 
other  five  must  be  carried  into  each  method 
in  turn.  But  as  we  come  to  know  a  mountain 
country  by  many  separate  expeditions,  and 
as  we  become  intimate  with  a  dear  friend  by 
many  distinct,  though  connected,  methods  of 
communication,  so  we  learn  the  way  about  the 
Bible,  and  become  adepts  in  its  understanding 
and  its  use,  by  having  at  our  side,  if  one  may 
so  phrase  it,  six   Bibles,  each  used  in  its  own 


I20   THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

particular  way.  The  six  modes  are  twisted 
into  one  cord  by  the  Hving  spirit  and  the 
practical  needs  of  the  reader. 

I.  As  simple  concordance  work  is  within 
the  reach  of  every  one,  however  untrained  and 
unscholarly  he  may  be,  so  it  remains  like  the 
common  ingredients  of  daily  food,  indispensa- 
ble for  even  the  advanced  student.  There  are 
great  leading  ideas  of  the  religious  life  which 
run,  like  golden  threads  in  a  woven  tapestry, 
through  the  Bible  from  beginning  to  end, 
and  are  not  adequately  appreciated  even  by 
assiduous  Bible  readers  until  they  are  carefully 
and  connectedly  followed  out.  To  borrow 
an  illustration  from  the  subject  at  present  in 
hand,  no  one  is  likely  to  apprehend  aright 
what  is  meant  by  the  Word  of  God  —  to 
see  how  inexact  and  inappropriate  it  is  to 
apply  the  term  to  the  Bible  as  a  w^iole,  or 
to  catch  the  supreme  importance  of  the  truth 
that  the  Word  may  come,  and  does  come,  im- 
mediately to  men  in  all  ages  —  until  he  has 
taken  up  the  Bible  and  followed  out  the  use 
of    the    expression    in    the    successive    books, 


USE    OF    THE    CONCORDANCE.  12  1 

somewhat  in  the  manner  that  was  pursued  in 
the  two  last  lectures. 

It  is  often  a  matter  of  surprise  and  admira- 
tion to  me  to  observe  how  little  this  form  of 
Bible  study  is  hindered  by  all  the  anomalies 
of  our  modern  translations.  The  results  are 
of  course  more  exact  if  Fuerst  and  Trommius 
and  Bruder  are  used  instead  of  Cruden ;  and 
the  Christian  minister  who  tries  to  share  with 
his  people  the  results  of  that  closer  acquaint- 
ance with  the  original,  which  is  often  his 
peculiar  gift  in  the  Church,  will  confer  a  vast 
benefit  upon  his  hearers.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  may  be  well  content  to  share  with 
the  humblest  of  his  flock  the  golden  fruit 
which  grows  from  a  right  use  of  Cruden. 
Some  of  his  own  deepest  inspirations  will 
come  to  him  when  he  has  just  traced  out  all 
through  the  Scriptures  the  use  of  such  a  term 
as  Grace  or  Love.  Some  of  his  most  service- 
able and  illuminating  discourses  will  result 
from  shutting  his  commentaries  and  trying 
to  expound  afresh  the  meaning  of  a  familiar 
idea,  such  as  Justification,  or  Holiness,  by  dili- 


122       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

gently  collecting  and  collating  and  arranging 
the  passages  throughout  the  Bible  in  which 
they  occur.  Often  he  will  himself  be  driven 
to  his  knees,  and  take  all  his  people  with 
him,  in  confession  and  contrition  and  believ- 
ing intercession,  after  going  through  his  Bible 
with  the  key-word  Prayer,  and  observing  how 
many  things  were  wrought  by  prayer,  how 
constantly  holy  men  prayed,  prayed  the  more 
the  better  they  were,  and  how  solemnly  this 
command  has  always  come  from  God  as  the 
condition  of  all  blessing,  "  Continue  instant  in 
prayer." 

2.  The  second  and  indispensable  method  of 
Bible  study  is  based  on  the  fact,  which  grows 
more  and  more  wonderful  with  every  new  dis- 
covery in  archaeology  and  in  ancient  literature, 
that  notwithstanding  the  unity  of  the  Bible  — 
the  unity  of  purpose  and  historical  develop- 
ment—  it  consists  of  articulated  parts,  each  of 
which  is  in  its  turn  a  unity.  Each  book  has 
its  own  historical  and  literary  setting  —  each 
book  has  an  atmosphere  of  its  own.  Apart 
altogether    from    that    Criticism  —  a    distinct 


BIBLE-INTRODUCTION.  1 23 

form  of  study  —  which  has  done  much  to 
change  the  venue  of  a  few  among  the  books  of 
the  collection,  it  is  good,  and  even  necessary, 
to  take  each  book  as  it  stands  in  our  Bibles 
and  read  it  as  a  whole,  if  possible  at  a  sitting. 
It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  thouQ-h  the 
Hexateuch,  for  example,  is  a  single  work,  com- 
piled from  similar  sources,  and  finally  edited 
by  a  single  hand,  each  of  its  six  books,  or 
parts,  has  a  character,  an  77^09,  of  its  own. 
Genesis  is  not  liable  to  confusion  with  Exodus, 
though  the  narrative  flows  on  with  no  wider 
gap  than  occurs  in  every  historical  work. 
Leviticus  and  Numbers  stand  interlocked,  but 
quite  distinct.  Deuteronomy  is  a  complete  and 
unified  work  which  might  stand  alone  without 
looking  backward  or  forward.  And  Joshua  is 
so  marked  off  from  the  preceding  books,  that 
it  requires  a  certain  effort  to  recognise  that  it 
belongs  to  them,  in  just  the  same  sense  that  the 
sixth  chapter  of  Macaulay's  history  belongs  to 
the  preceding  five. 

And  so  we  might  range  through  all  the  dear 
and  familiar  list.      If  we  want  sometimes  to  set 


124       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

one  book  side  by  side  with  another,  as,  for  in- 
stance, to  compare  Chronicles  with  the  older 
history,  or  to  examine  two  kindred  Epistles, 
like  Ephesians  and  Colossians,  in  one  study, 
yet  we  always  want  to  keep  each  colophon  of 
the  great  tale  by  itself,  and  to  treat  it  lovingly 
and  particularly,  as  a  distinct  gem,  before  we 
put  it  in  the  casket  with  the  rest —  to  tell  the 
beads  in  our  rosary  one  by  one  before  we  put 
the  whole  around  our  neck  and  clasp  it  to 
our  bosom. 

Even  in  that  central  point  of  the  Bible  or- 
ganism where  the  harp  which  utters  the  dark- 
bright  saying  of  the  Saviour's  life  and  death 
has  four  distinct  strings,  they  do  not  half  un- 
derstand the  music  who  know  only  the  chord 
of  the  four  strings,  but  have  not  drawn  the 
special  tone  from  each.  We  may  with  Ire- 
naeus,  though  on  different  grounds,  see  a 
Divine  wisdom  in  a  fourfold  gospel-narrative 
being  given  to  us  rather  than  one  harmonised 
whole.  The  harmony  is  good,  but  the  four 
voices  are  better ;  and  he  has  gone  but  a  little 
way  in  the  study  of  the  Evangel  who  does  not 


A    CHAPTER    A    DAY.  1 25 

recognise  in  a  moment  the  note  of  each  evan- 
gelist, who  has  not  seized  on  Mark  for  his 
brevity,  to  read  him  at  a  sitting  —  studied 
Matthew  for  the  wonder  of  a  Jew  opening  his 
eyes  to  the  Gospel,  Luke  for  the  width  of  the 
Gentile  world  finding  its  Saviour,  and  John 
for  the  mystical  evolution  of  the  Saviour's  life 
in  the  experience  of  the  believer. 

3.  But  the  study  of  topics  and  books  will 
not  absolve  us,  to  my  thinking,  from  a  constant 
and  steady  perusal  of  "a  chapter  a  day,"  year 
in  and  year  out,  revolving  the  scroll  of  the 
Word  with  the  rolling  seasons. 

No  study  of  parts  or  aspects  will  do  for  study 
of  the  whole.  We  must  be  within  hail  of  any 
voice  sounding  from  the  enchanted  district. 
To  bury  oneself  in  one  valley  or  to  wander 
along  a  few  green  pastures  will  not  suffice.  I 
do  not  rest  in  the  teaching  of  the  man  who  sits 
all  day  on  the  Mount  where  the  Lord  preached 
His  sermon,  but  never  hears  the  reverberations 
from  Sinai  or  the  deep-toned  answer  from  Cal- 
vary. I  like  well  enough  a  visit  to  the  Nile  or 
to  Euphrates,  and  the  best  attention  given  to 


126       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

Abana  and  Pharpar ;  but  not  to  the  neglect 
of  Jordan,  the  home-stream  that  cleaves  the 
Holy  Land. 

He  would  seem  to  me  a  somewhat  one-sided 
minister  who  is  more  than  a  twelvemonth  from 
any  part  of  the  book.  Our  fading  impressions 
need  a  frequent  renewal ;  and  the  warped  cov- 
erlet of  our  own  experience  must  be  constantly 
stretched  and  fastened  on  the  tenter-hooks  of 
the  whole  compass  of  the  Book. 

Whatever  excursions  I  may  contemplate  dur- 
ing the  day  in  the  great  country,  I  would  in  the 
early  morning  move  my  tent  leisurely  along  a 
beaten  track  which  goes  by  spirals  or  cross-cuts 
through  every  part  of  the  land. 

It  may  seem  a  little  mechanical  to  plod  on, 
throuofh  the  ritual  of  the  Law  and  the  chro- 
nologies  of  Chronicles,  a  chapter  a  day  —  but, 
remember,  this  is  only  one  of  our  methods  with 
the  Bible  —  a  necessary  method,  because  other- 
wise we  might  lose  the  treasures  in  the  unfre- 
quented parts,  a  method,  however,  which  needs 
to  be  constantly  supplemented  by  other  forms 
of  approach ;    and   then  the  discipline  of  this 


SCHOLARSHIP.  I27 

conscientious  regularity  will  be  found  to  exer- 
cise its  due  effect ;  by  this  toil,  as  by  all  toil, 
we  are  liberated  from  the  "weight  of  chance 
desires "  and  the  peculiar  oppression  of  "  un- 
chartered freedom."  As  brilliant  intellectual 
qualities  require  a  solid  substratum  of  industry, 
or  as  the  variations  of  a  melody  are  built  upon 
a  steady  ground-tone,  so  all  our  excursions  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible  are  best  undertaken  from 
this  starting-point  of  discipline. 

4.  The  fourth  method,  indispensable  for  the 
preacher,  is  more  arduous  still.  Every  preacher 
should  be,  so  far  as  circumstances  permit,  a 
scholar.  The  languages  of  the  original  Scrip- 
tures should  be  sufficiently  mastered  to  enable 
him  to  move  with  some  independence  of  judg- 
ment and  selection  through  the  works  of  even 
the  greatest  commentators  or  exegetes. 

Nothing  is  more  tedious  to  men  than  second- 
hand scholarship.  The  plums  from  the  com- 
mentaries appear  in  a  sermon  as  very  dry 
raisins  indeed,  unless  the  preacher  was  in 
a  position  to  use  his  authorities  with  a  fresh- 
ness which  under  favouring  circumstances 
might  have  made  him  an  authority  himself. 


128       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

I  would  not  lay  too  much  stress  on  this 
requirement.  There  is  an  idolatry  of  learning, 
an  esoteric  spirit  of  the  specialist,  a  super- 
stitious reverence  for  the  "  original  tongues," 
which  will  ruin  any  preacher.  I  do  not  advo- 
cate the  sentiment  which  was  expressed  by 
the  father  of  Coleridge  when  he  used  to  speak 
with  bated  breath  of  Hebrew  as  "  the  imme- 
diate language  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  To  my 
mind  the  old  countrywoman  was  considerably 
nearer  the  mark  when,  on  hearing  a  minister 
quote  Greek  in  the  pulpit,  she  exclaimed  indig- 
nantly, "  Bless  you,  you  don't  suppose  the 
Apostle  Paul  knew  Greek !  "  It  is  a  far  saner 
state  of  mind  which  supposes  that  Paul  was 
ignorant  of  Greek,  than  that  which  imag- 
ines that  a  mysterious  and  Divine  value  at- 
taches to  the  tongue  in  which,  as  it  happened, 
the  great  communications  of  God  were  first 
made. 

But  the  importance  of  a  firm  and  scholarly 
hand  in  dealing  with  the  exegesis  of  Scripture 
in  public  ministrations  is  so  vast,  and  the  mis- 
chief done  by  ignorant   preachers  is  so  incal- 


SCHOLARSHIP.  1 29 

culable  and  far-reaching,  that  I  would  use  it  as 
a  plea  to  students  to  labour  day  and  night  in 
their  period  of  preparation  to  become  good 
Hebraists  and  good  Hellenists,  and  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  a  sensitive  and  resourceful 
scholarship.  I  would  suggest  that  the  crisis 
of  intellectual  curiosity  and  minute  research 
should  be  got  over  safely  and  wholesomely 
before  the  active  work  of  the  ministry  begins, 
so  that  no  traces  of  the  disease  may  be  seen 
in  the  pulpit,  but  only  the  happy  results  of  a 
favourable  inoculation.  A  preacher's  knowl- 
edge of  the  text,  and  his  instinctive  apprehen, 
sion  of  linguistic  colour  and  form,  should  be  so 
deeply  settled  in  his  constitution  by  long  and 
painful  toil,  that,  while  a  Hebrew  or  Greek 
specialist  in  his  congregation  would  imme- 
diately perceive  that  he  was  an  adept,  the 
poorest  and  least  instructed  of  his  hearers 
would  never  dream  that  he  knew  Hebrew  or 
Greek  at  all,  and  indeed  would  never  need  to 
be  reminded  that  the  word  of  God  ever  came 
in  any  other  language  than  good,  racy,  idio- 
matic English. 


130   THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  careful  work  in 
philology  and  exegesis  is  the  most  self-denying 
of  the  preacher's  many  sacrifices  to  his  mis- 
sion. It  makes  no  show,  it  wins  no  praise,  it 
is  taken  for  granted  by  careless  listeners ;  the 
sweat  of  the  brain  which  it  demands  is  dropped 
in  silence  and  darkness  upon  the  ground  where 
no  human  eye  sees,  and  angels  alone  come  to 
minister  to  him. 

5.  And  yet  I  am  not  sure  that  the  fifth 
method  of  Bible  study  does  not  make  even 
greater  demands  upon  the  preacher,  at  any 
rate  on  the  preacher  of  this  singularly  expan- 
sive and  progressive  period  of  the  world's  life. 
It  is  necessary  for  every  true  man  and  brave 
teacher  to  read  his  Bible  carefully  and  con- 
stantly with  the  Aids  to  Criticism  which 
modern  research  has  furnished. 

I  shall  avoid  the  term  which  has  now  passed 
into  the  language  of  cant,  the  Higher  Criti- 
cism. I  will  only  remind  you  that  no  field  of 
knowledge  has  been  more  laboriously  turned, 
or  with  more  remarkable  results,  than  that  of 
the  systematic  inquiry    into    the    composition, 


CRITICAL    STUDY.  I3I 

the  dates,  the  authorship,  of  the  several  books 
in  the  Canon  of  Scripture. 

That  the  conclusions  to  which  the  trend  of 
discovery  points  are  in  a  sense  revolutionary  I 
will  not  attempt  to  deny.  They  who  are  un- 
happy enough  so  to  have  built  the  walls  of 
their  faith  that  it  will  be  like  a  shock  of 
earthquake  to  them  to  discover  that  Moses 
did  not  write  the  Pentateuch,  or  that  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  comprises  many  great  pro- 
phetic utterances  from  other  sources  than 
Isaiah  himself,  must  inevitably  experience 
something  like  vertigo  in  exploring  the  care- 
fully reasoned  work  of  modern  scholarship. 
Some  preachers,  and  many  editors,  have  in- 
gloriously  resolved  to  avoid  the  dizzy  heights 
of  Truth,  to  conceal  themselves  in  the  valley 
of  Tradition,  and  to  anathematise  those  who 
have  too  much  confidence  in  God  and  the 
Bible  to  follow  their  example.  I  am  not  care- 
ful to  minimise  the  temptation  which  thus 
comes  to  a  preacher,  even  to  one  who  is  veri- 
tably sent  by  God.  He  often  knows  quite 
well  that  if  he  shuts  his  eyes  to  the  facts,  and 


132   THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

blindly  clings  to  the  old  unquestioning  dog- 
matism, he  will  not  only  escape  the  throes  of 
new  knowledge  himself,  but  he  will  be  praised 
by  the  multitudes  who  hide  in  the  valley  of 
Tradition,  and  even  hailed  as  a  champion  if  he 
launches  his  thunderbolts  ao^ainst  the  truths 
which  he  has  never  ventured  even  to  examine. 
The  Church  swarms  with  people  who  have 
no  spiritual  sinew,  and  whose  lungs  cannot 
breathe  the  invigorating  air  of  Truth :  they 
take  up  the  cry  of  that  timid  and  decorous 
spinster  who,  on  hearing  an  exposition  of  the 
Darwinian  theory  that  men  are  descended 
from  apes,  said,  "  Let  us  hope  it  is  not  true,  or 
if  it  is,  let  us  hush  it  upT 

I  count  it  to  be  the  great  trial  and  ordeal 
which  God  presents  before  His  prophets  in  all 
ages  —  shall  they  sit  easily  in  the  slumberous 
bowers  of  an  accepted  Orthodoxy,  or  will  they 
up  and  climb,  and  walk,  even  with  Death  and 
Morning,  on  the  mountain  horns  ? 

I  was  myself  nurtured  in  a  university  where 
ecclesiastical  tradition  held  an  undisputed 
sway,  and  the  free  air  of  truer  thinking  which 


DEVOTIONAL    BIBLE    STUDY.  I  33 

was  abroad  in  Germany  and  even  in  Scotland 
was  never  for  a  moment  admitted.  And  well 
do  I  remember  in  the  early  days  of  my  min- 
istry a  young  educated  man  coming  to  me  at 
the  close  of  a  service,  and  eagerly  putting 
to  me  the  question,  "  Do  you  believe  Moses 
wrote  the  Pentateuch  .f^  "  And  when  I  an- 
swered, "  Yes,"  his  countenance  fell,  and  he 
went  away,  knowing  that  he  could  get  no  help 
in  that  quarter,  for,  indeed,  he  himself  was  a 
better  scholar  than  the  incapable  preacher  to 
whom  he  had  listened.  I  would  do  anything 
in  my  power  to  save  the  coming  "  sons  of 
the  prophets  "  from  being  trained  in  the 
obscurantism,  and  the  consequent  blindness 
which  prevailed  in  my  own  student  days  at 
Oxford. 

6.  But  the  most  essential  and,  I  think,  the 
most  delightful  method  of  Bible  reading  is 
that  which  I  reserve  for  the  last  —  I  mean 
the  devotional.  In  Criticism  as  such  no 
human  soul  can  rest.  When  we  have  learnt 
all  we  can  from  it,  we  still  have  to  go  to  the 
Bible  as  the  pabulum  for  the  soul's  life,  and 


134       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD. 

we  ought  to  praise  God  that  the  work  of 
Criticism  has  not  diminished,  and,  we  may 
confidently  predict,  never  can  diminish,  the 
immediate  spiritual  value  of  the  Scriptures,  in 
guiding  our  feet  into  the  ways  of  prayer,  and 
feeding  our  spirits  with  the  manna  sent  down 
from  Heaven. 

It  would  be  well  if  all  of  us  —  and  especially 
scholars  —  would  remember  what  Spenser  in 
his  musical  manner  has  taught  us,  that  only 
Fidelia,  or  Faith,  can  make  the  Bible  a  living 
power  for  the  reader.  At  her  feet  the  Red 
Cross  Knight  was  bound  to  sit, 

And  that  her  sacred  book,  with  bloody  writ, 
That  none  could  read  except  she  did  them  teach, 
She  unto  him  disclosed  every  whit ; 
And  heavenly  documents  thereout  did  preach, 
That  weaker  wit  of  man  could  never  reach  ; 
Of  God  ;  of  Grace  ;  of  Justice  ;  of  Freewill ; 
That  wonder  was  to  hear  her  goodly  speech ; 
For  she  was  able  with  her  words  to  kill 
And  raise  again  to  life  the  heart  that  she  did  thrill.^ 

The  supreme  and  incalculable  value  of  this 

^  Faerie  Queefie,  bk.  i.  canto  x.  stanza  xix. 


GlLMOtJR    AND    THE    PSALMS.  135 

devotional  use  of  the  Bible  will  probably  dawn 
upon  us  all  more  clearly  by  an  example  than 
by  any  vague  and  general  insistence  of  mine. 

The  great  missionary  to  Mongolia,  James 
Gilmour,  had  to  face  that  bitterest  experience 
of  the  man  of  God,  solitude  and  isolation 
in  his  work.  For  twenty-one  years  he  spent 
a  good  part  of  the  summer  in  the  tents  or 
inhospitable  inns  of  that  vast  and  unevange- 
lised  country.  He  had  not  to  preach  to  cul- 
tivated congregations,  or  indeed  to  any 
congregations  at  all.  But  in  hand-to-hand 
contact  with  the  sordid,  narrow,  stupid  life  of 
the  people,  he  had  to  manifest  Christ,  and  to 
present  to  them  in  his  person  the  truth  which 
they  could  not  understand  in  words.  On  that 
part  of  his  life  I  wish  to  say  more  in  a  later 
lecture ;  but  to-day  I  refer  to  him  only  to  show 
how  by  the  devotional  study  of  the  Psalms  in 
a  special  degree  he  was  maintained  in  his  dis- 
couraging task. 

"  I  am  reading  at  night,  before  going  to 
bed,"  he  says  in  his  diary  of  October  25,  1886, 
''  the  Psalms  in  a  small  print  copy  of  the  Re- 


136   THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD. 

vised  Bible,  holding  it  at  arm's  length  almost, 
close  up  to  a  Chinese  candle,  to  suit  my  eyes, 
for  I  cannot  see  small  print  well  now,  and  I 
find  much  strength  and  courage  in  the  old 
warrior's  words.  Verily  the  Psalms  are  in- 
spired. No  doubt  about  that.  None  that 
wait  on  Him  will  be  put  to  shame.  He  is 
with  me  here."  ^ 

Or  again,  on  July  30,  1890.  "  How  full  the 
Psalms  are  !  These  days  I  am  going  through 
them  in  Chinese ;  I  take  one  each  morning 
and  commit  some  verses  of  it  carefully.  Then 
during  the  day,  as  time  permits,  I  read  a  few 
more.  How  one  the  soul  of  man  is !  When 
dull  and  cold  and  dead,  and  feeling  as  if  I 
could  not  pray,  I  turn  to  the  Psalms.  When 
most  in  the  spirit  the  Psalms  meet  almost  all 
the  needs  of  expression.  And  yet  deluded 
men  talk  of  the  Bible  as  the  outcome  of  the 
Jewish  mind !  The  greatest  proof  of  the  Di- 
vine source  of  the  Book  is  that  it  fits  the  soul 
as  well  as  a  Chubb's  key  fits  the  lock  it  was 

"^  James  Gilmour  of  Mongolia,  p.  205,  by  R.  Lovett,  M.A. 
R.T.S. 


GILMOUR    AND    THE    PSALMS.  1 37 

made  for."^  And  in  another  letter  of  the  same 
time,  "  What  helps  me  most  just  at  present  is 
the  Psalms.  ...  I  never  knew  there  was  so 
much  in  them  before.  I  believe  that  even  at 
the  end  of  a  long  life  this  (discovery  of  more 
and  more  in  God's  Word)  will  hold  true  of 
all  the  Bible,  and  then  for  the  beyond  there 
is  the  Inexhaustible  Himself  —  satisfaction  for 
the  present  and  plenty  for  the  future."  ^ 

And  just  a  few  months  before  he  died  he 
wrote  to  a  brother  missionary:  "Sometimes  it 
is  cold  and  dark ;  but  I  just  hold  on,  and  it  is 
all  right.  Romans  viii.  I  find  good  reading  in 
dull  spiritual  weather,  and  the  Psalms  too  are 
useful.  When  I  feel  I  cannot  make  headway 
in  devotion  I  open  in  the  Psalms,  and  push  out 
in  my  canoe,  and  let  myself  be  carried  along 
in  the  stream  of  devotion  which  flows  through 
the  whole  book.  The  current  always  sets 
towards  God,  and  in  most  places  is  strong  and 
deep.     These  old  men — eh,  man!  —  they  beat 

1  James  Gihnoiir  of  Mongolia,  p.  272,  by  R.  Lovett,  M.A. 
R.T.S. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  276. 


138       THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    WORD    OF    GOD.* 

US  hollow,  with  all  our  New  Testament  and  all 
our  devotional  aids  and  manuals.  And  yet  I 
don't  know.  In  the  old  time  there  were  oriants 
—  one  here  and  there.  Now  there  are  many 
nameless  but  efficient  men  of  only  ordinary 
stature."  -^ 

And  with  these  living  words  from  a  giant  of 
the  new  time  I  must  conclude,  asking  you,  in 
a  far  more  various  and  searching  way  than 
ever  our  fathers  understood,  to  be  constantly 
plying  your  canoe  on  that  great  tide  which 
flows  through  all  the  Book  we  call  the  Bible, 
the  current  of  which  always  sets  towards  God. 

'^  James  Gihnour  of  Mongolia,  p.  281,  by  R.  Lovett,  M.A. 
R.T.S. 


LECTURE    V. 


LECTURE   V. 

THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

In  the  last  Lecture  we  dwelt  with  some  ful- 
ness of  detail  on  the  Word  of  God  which  men 
call  the  Bible,  and  we  saw  how  necessary  it  is 
that  a  preacher,  one  who  is  to  deliver  the  word 
of  the  Lord  to  his  own  age,  should  master  the 
Word  delivered  to  the  past  ages,  and  in  many 
different  ways  seek  to  assimilate  the  whole  of 
what  is  written.  It  might  seem  almost  im- 
possible to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  the 
Bible  or  to  attach  an  undue  value  to  the  Word 
of  God  which  is  for  all  time  delivered  by  it. 
Yet  even  this  apparent  impossibility  has  been 
effected  by  the  narrowness  and  ignorance  of 
men.  For  it  has  sometimes  been  implied,  or 
even  expressly  taught,  not  only  that  the  Bible 
is  the  Word  of  God,  but  that  it  alone  is  God's 

141 


142       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

Word,  as  if  He  had  not  otherwise  spoken  to 
men,  and  while  everything  within  the  covers 
of  the  Canon  is  the  word  of  God,  nothing  is 
the  word  of  God  which  is  not  written  there. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Bible  itself  does 
not  teach  this  one-sided  doctrine.  I  am  not 
sure  that  the  Church  ever  taught  it  ex  cathe- 
dra. It  is  a  superstition  that  is  born,  like 
many  other  superstitions,  of  indolence.  "  If 
the  Word  of  God "  —  so  seems  to  argue  the 
sluggish  human  mind  —  "  is  really  to  be  found, 
whole  and  sole,  in  a  small  volume  that  I  can 
put  into  my  pocket  and  regard  as  a  complete 
Vade  Mecum,  then  I  shall  do  well.  I  need 
not  trouble  to  study  anything  else.^  The 
strenuous  and  often  agonised  experiences  by 
which  holy  men  of  old  received  the  Word  were 

1  "  The  famous  barbarism  of  Omar  in  burning  the  library  of 
Alexandria,  on  the  ground  that  if  it  contained  anything  other 
than  the  Koran  it  was  superfluous,  finds  a  close  parallel  in  the 
burning  of  the  Library  of  Tripoli  by  the  Christians  in  1104. 
Ibn  Abu  Tai  says  that  there  were  three  million  volumes ;  that 
is  no  doubt  an  exaggeration,  but  a  vast  treasure  of  literature 
was  lest  because  a  priest  declared  it  contained  only  the  impious 
books  of  Mohammed."  (^Picturesque  Palestine^  vol.  iii.  p.  14. 
Virtue  «&  Co.) 


THE  INDOLENCE  OF  ORTHODOXY.     1 43 

vicarious,  they  were  meant  to  spare  me  labour 
and  sorrow.  Many  centuries  ago  the  Inspired 
Writers  —  '  sacred  penmen  '  they  have  been 
called  —  through  travail  and  pain,  through 
watching  and  waiting  and  prayer,  received  the 
whole  and  the  final  counsel  of  God,  and  wrote 
it  in  a  book,  which  I  can  purchase  for  a  few 
coppers.  I  need  not  distress  myself  to  ap- 
proach the  sacred  mount  myself,  or  to  pene- 
trate the  veil  before  the  Holy  of  Holies.  No 
need  for  me  to  go  away  into  Arabia,  or  in  the 
persecuted  solitude  of  Patmos  to  hear  the 
voice  like  the  sound  of  many  waters." 

It  is  painful  to  be  obliged  to  confess  that  the 
shallow  doctrine  of  Scripture  which  Protestant- 
ism has  hugged  for  two  centuries  or  more  is 
simply  the  product  of  indolence  and  unbelief. 
And  it  is  doubtless  very  painful  to  those  who 
have  rested  content  with  it  to  find  that  it  all 
crumbles  away  directly  any  one  rises  out  of  the 
slumber  of  dogmatism  and  ventures  to  put  a 
direct  question :  "  What  proof  is  there,  in  the 
Bible  or  out  of  it,  that  the  word  of  God  is  in 
any  sense  confined  within  the  Bible  itself  ?  " 


144       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

Now,  in  opposition  to  what  is  after  all  a  base- 
less dogma,  the  man  who  is  bent  on  receiving 
the  word  of  God  whencesoever  and  howsoever 
it  may  come  to  him,^will  feel  compelled  to  work 
along  several  lines  of  inquiry  and  reflection. 
First,  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  God  has 
not  been  speaking  to  His  saints,  His  prophets, 
His  preachers  since  the  first  century,  in  the 
same  way  that  He  spoke  to  men  of  old,  and 
that  in  their  writings  there  are  not  precious 
w^ords  of  God  which  every  man  of  God  would 
wish  to  receive  and  to  obey.  Secondly,  there  is 
much  ground  for  thinking  that  in  other  relig- 
ions besides  Christianity  and  in  other  sacred 
literatures  besides  the  Bible,  He  who  has  never 
left  Himself  anywhere  without  a  witness  has 
spoken  with  a  fulness  and  a  richness  which  will 
greatly  enlarge  our  conception  of  the  God  who 
is  the  Father  of  every  family  that  is  named  in 
heaven  and  earth.  Thirdly,  seeing  that  man- 
kind is  His  offspring,  and  in  Him  we  all  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being,  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  in  the  very  constitution  of  our 
minds  there  is  a  latent  word  of  God,  and  in  the 


WHERE    IS    IT    TO    BE    SOUGHT?  I45 

general  history  of  man  on  the  earth  there  is  a 
progressively  revealed  purpose  of  God,  so  that 
in  all  true  literature,  whether  philosophy  or 
poetry  or  history,  the  spiritually  enlightened 
mind  will  be  able  to  detect  manifold  words  of 
God.  Fourthly,  the  universe  itself,  and  the 
very  framework  of  Nature,  if  we  are  right  in 
regarding  it  all  as  the  creation  of  the  Divine 
mind,  must  deserve  the  closest  study,  and  must 
reveal  His  thought,  and,  in  certain  conditions. 
His  articulate  Word.  And  lastly,  when  these 
many  other  sources  of  revelation  have  been 
struck,  and  the  mind  has  been  widened  to  an 
apprehension  of  the  manifold  ways  of  God's 
self-manifestation,  we  may  certainly  expect  that 
the  repeated  and  more  intelligent  re-perusal  of 
the  Bible,  or  the  Word  of  God  par  excellence, 
will  result  in  new  understanding,  so  that,  ac- 
cording to  John  Robinson's  famous  idea,  "  more 
light  and  truth  will  break  forth  from  the  Writ- 
ten Word." 

Or,  to  put  it  briefly,  if  we  would  receive  the 
Word  of  God  in  its  fulness,  we  must  consider 
and  receive  (i)  the  lives  and  the  teaching  of 


146       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

inspired  men  all  down  the  ages,  (2)  the  truths 
of  Comparative  Religion,  (3)  the  true  results  of 
literature,  (4)  the  true  results  of  Science,  and 
(5)  the  deeper  and  wider  teaching  which  comes 
from  the  Bible  itself  to  one  who  is  versed  in 
these  several  studies. 

The  Bible  is  all-important,  but  it  is  not  all 
that  is  important.  It  is  regulative  of  all  study, 
but  it  does  not  take  the  place  of  all  study.  It 
must  be  understood,  but  its  very  greatness 
demands  that  all  means  of  understanding  it 
should  be  freely  used.  It  is  a  Revelation  of 
God,  the  greatest,  the  clearest,  the  most  com- 
plete that  the  world  possesses,  but  it  is  one 
function  of  its  Divine  teaching  to  open  our  eyes 
to  other  revelations  of  Him  which  are  outside 
itself.  It  is  not  a  Koran,  which,  professing 
to  render  all  other  means  of  knowledge  super- 
fluous, falls  like  a  blight,  wherever  it  is  accepted, 
on  science  and  literature  and  progress.  But  it 
is,  as  it  were,  a  great  and  indispensable  Primer 
to  the  human  spirit,  for  receiving  and  under- 
standino^  the  whole  counsel  of  Him  who  reveals 
Himself  in  many  ways. 


"EVERY    WRITING    GOD-INSPIRED.  1 47 

Before,  then,  we  approach  the  central  idea, 
viz.,  the  preacher  receiving  the  Word  of  God 
immediately  from  the  Divine  Spirit  in  order  to 
deliver  it  to  the  world,  we  must  complete  our 
propcedtttic  by  adding  to  the  requirements  of 
Bible  study  the  other  lines  of  thought  which 
must  complete  the  sum  of  the  Revelation  hith- 
erto given,  or  now  being  given,  to  mankind. 
For  in  a  much  larger  sense  than  a  cramped 
Bibliolatry  has  permitted  most  of  us  to  see, 
"  every  writing  God-inspired  is  also  useful  for 
teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  the 
discipline  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  complete,  for  every  good  work 
furnished  completely"  (2  Tim.  iii.  16). 

Now  to  pass  in  review  the  five  points  which 
have  been  mentioned,  i.  There  is,  I  believe, 
no  conceivable  authority  for  saying  that  the 
deliverance  of  inspired  or  prophetic  messages 
to  men  came  to  an  abrupt  end  when  the 
Canon  of  the  New  Testament  was  completed. 
The  Apostolic  utterances  had  come  to  an  end ; 
the  men  who  had  been  contemporaries  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  had  passed  away;  and  there  was 


148       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

every  reason  for  carefully  gathering  together 
and  preserving  as  a  priceless  treasure  all  these 
testimonies  from  the  circle  of  those  who  "had 
seen  the  Lord."  But  neither  the  apostles 
themselves  nor  their  Lord  gave  a  hint  that 
the  direct  communication  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
with  believing  men  was  thenceforward  to  cease. 
Rather  they  gave  many  express  declarations  to 
the  contrary.  It  is  true  that  the  sub-apostolic 
literature  is  of  very  inferior  value  to  the 
apostolic  writings  themselves,  and  for  that 
very  reason  Barnabas,  Hermas,  Clement,  and 
Ignatius,  though  of  the  same  date  as  the  later 
New  Testament  writings,  did  not  obtain  a 
place  in  the  New  Testament  Canon.  But 
stepping  onward  in  the  bold  march  of  Christian 
life  and  thought,  we  must  indeed  be  insensible 
to  the  very  meaning  of  the  Word  of  God  if  we 
cannot  detect  the  Divine  teaching  in  many 
parts  of  Origen,  Irenaeus,  and  Tertullian.  Cer- 
tainly that  operation  of  the  Spirit  on  the 
human  mind  which  is  called  inspiration  had 
not  ceased  in  the  days  of  Athanasius  and  of 
Augustine.     And  notwithstanding  the  corrup- 


"every  writing  god-inspired."         149 

tions  of  the  Church,  and  the  constant  tendency 
to   silence    the   prophets    at    the  fanes  of   the 
priests,  the  word    of    God    has    come    to    His 
chosen   age    after    age    with   a  directness   and 
power  which  were  hardly  surpassed  in  apostolic 
times.      If  the  Imitatio  Christi  is  not  a  word 
of    God,  what   is?     Is  the   sacred    passion    of 
St.  Bernard,  which  still  breathes  in  his  hymns 
of  fervent  love    to  Jesus,  translated  into  every 
modern   language,  less   of   a   word  from   God 
than    the    song    of    Deborah    or    Psalm   Iviii.  .^^ 
Did   Luther  break  the  yoke  of  Rome,  create 
Germany,    and    shake    the    world    without    an 
immediate  word  of  God  ?     Was  Wesley  a  man 
only  of  traditions  and  erudition,   and    did    he 
not  receive  a  message  which  lives  for  ever  in 
his   incomparable  writings  ?     And  in  our  own 
century  have   no   new   and    clear    truths   been 
communicated    by  God  to  Frederick  Denison 
Maurice,  F.  W.  Robertson,  Macleod  Campbell, 
Thomas    Erskine,    Horace     Bushnell .?     They 
were  persecuted  and  misunderstood,  as  they  to 
whom  the  word  of  the   Lord  comes  are  in  all 
ages,   but   already  we   begin   to  perceive   that 


150       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

inspired    men    have    been    among    us,    and    to 

acknowledge,    as    the    men    of    Josiah's    time 

acknowledged  concerning  their   ancient  faith, 

"  The   Lord  made  not  this  covenant  with  our 

fathers,  but  with  us,  even  us,  who  are  all  of  us 

here  alive  this  day  "  (Deut.  v.  3).     Our  study 

of  theology,  in  a  sentence,  should  be,  as  the 

term   itself   implies,  a  study  of  the  God-word 

that  came  in  Biblical  times,  supplemented  and 

completed  by  the   God-word  which   has   been 

coming  ever  since.     As  one  of  your  own  poets 

has  said :  — 

Slowly  the  Bible  of  the  race  is  writ, 

And  not  on  paper  leaves  or  leaves  of  stone  ; 

Each  age,  each  kindred  adds  a  verse  to  it, 

Texts  of  despair  or  hope,  of  joy  or  moan, 

While  swings  the  sea,  while  mists  the  mountains  shroud, 

While  thunder's  surges  burst  on  cliffs  of  cloud, 

Still  at  the  prophet's  feet  the  nations  sit.^ 

2.  But  this  large  saying  of  James  Russell 
Lowell's  takes  us  over  to  a  second  point.  One 
of  the  greatest  truths  which  has  dawned  upon 
our  spacious  century  has  been  the  recognition 
of  God's  Spirit  in   the  lower   religions   of  the 

1  James  Russell  Lowell. 


COMPARATIVE    RELIGIONS.  I5I 

world.  It  was  an  idea  by  no  means  strange  to 
the  thinkers  of  the  second  and  third  centuries, 
to  Justin  Martyr  and  the  school  of  Alexandria; 
but  the  intolerable  pollutions  of  the  old  Pagan- 
ism in  its  decay  carried  the  Church  as  a 
whole  to  the  less  luminous  view  that  all  man- 
kind, outside  the  circle  of  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity, was  given  up  to  devil-worship,  and  that 
the  witness  of  God  to  Himself,  which  it  was 
admitted  existed  everywhere  in  primitive 
times,  had  been  lost.  The  study  of  compara- 
tive religions,  which  was  rendered  possible  by 
the  study  of  comparative  philology  and  eth- 
nology, has  very  much  modified  that  rather 
contracted  view.  The  Egyptian  hieroglyphics 
have  revealed  that  the  dwellers  by  the  Nile,  four 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  sang  hymns  to 
God  which  we  might  use  to-day.  The  labours 
of  Sir  William  Jones  and  his  successors  threw 
open  to  Western  minds  —  and  even  to  Eastern 
—  the  early  faith  of  the  Vedas.  The  work  of 
missionaries  in  China  revealed  the  noble  con- 
ceptions of  Confucius  and  Menzius.  A  sym- 
pathetic study  of  Buddhism  showed  how  God 


152       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

could  live  and  work  in  a  system  professedly 
atheistic.  The  reading  of  the  Zendavesta  has 
assured  us  of  a  pure  and  simple  faith  in 
ancient  Persia  which  is  greatly  in  advance  of 
the  more  corrupted  forms  of  Christianity. 
Meanwhile  the  records  of  the  buried  cities  of 
Mesopotamia  have  come  to  light,  and  proved 
that  many  truths  and  religious  ideas  which  we 
supposed  were  the  peculiar  property  of  God's 
chosen  people  were  familiar  to  the  kindred 
nations  whom  we  regarded  as  not  chosen. 
And  even  the  savage  and  barbarous  races, 
which,  according  to  John  Locke,  showed  no 
trace  of  a  faith  in  God,  have  been  found  on 
closer  acquaintance  to  retain  the  distinct 
marks  of  that  witness  which  God  has  given  to 
Himself  in  every  nation  and  tribe  of  mankind. 
Now  it  may  be  granted  that  whatever  is 
true  in  these  other  religions  is  found  in  Chris- 
tianity, and  for  the  most  part  what  is  found  in 
them  and  not  in  Christianity  is  distorted,  cor- 
rupt, or  untrue.  But  none  the  less,  if  we  would 
rightly  apprehend  the  Word  of  God  in  its 
breadth  of  significance,  we  must  recognise  this 


COMPARATIVE    RELIGIONS.  I  53 

manifoldness  in  the  gradations  of  His  self- 
revelation,  and  freely  admit  that  our  own  faith 
differs  from  other  religions,  not  in  this  respect, 
that  it  is  from  God  and  they  are  not  from 
Him,  but  rather  in  the  supreme  importance  of 
the  fact  which  is  the  key  to  all  religions,  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ,  prepared  in  history  and 
prophecy,  revealed  in  due  time,  and  received 
now  into  the  Unseen  as  a  perennial  fountain 
of  grace  and  power  and  salvation  to  mankind. 
All  the  religions  were,  as  Schiller  taught,  hints, 
suggestions,  anticipations,  aspirations,  which 
looked  towards  Christ.  The  wise  men  of  the 
East  came  to  His  cradle,  and  the  wise  men  of 
the  West  started  from  His  Cross.  But  never  do 
we  rightly  appreciate  the  Being  who  is  Him- 
self the  Word  of  God,  until  we  make  out  the 
scattered  syllables  and  letters  which  in  all  the 
faiths  of  the  world  have  waited  to  be  combined 
in  that  Name  which  is  above  every  name. 

No  preacher  can  train  the  home  church  or 
equip  the  missionary  church  who  has  not  rec- 
ognised this  wider  meaning  of  the  Word  of 
God  in  the  manifold  religions  of  mankind. 


154       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

3.  But,  difficult  as  the  idea  just  presented  is 
to  work  out  in  detail,  the  idea  that  follows  on 
it  presents  still  greater  difficulties,  and  yet  it 
must  be  fairly  faced  by  a  true  man  of  God. 
The  whole  word  of  the  Lord  will  not  be  ob- 
tained from  the  avowed  utterances  of  religion, 
even  if  we  give  to  religion  the  broadest  con- 
ceivable meaning.  Not  without  reason  does 
the  Bible  contain  a  great  deal  of  history  and 
biography,  of  poetry,  and  even,  according  to 
Hebrew  conceptions,  of  philosophy.  The 
truth  is  that  all  human  life  from  the  becjin- 
ning,  and  the  human  mind  itself,  with  its  char- 
acteristic powers  of  thought  and  utterance, 
especially  in  those  noblest  efforts  of  utterance 
which  are  called  poetry,  and  those  completest 
efforts  of  thought  which  are  called  philosophy, 
contain  certain  words  of  God,  certain  indubi- 
table revelations  which  it  is  our  duty  to  re- 
ceive. Literature  is  the  record  of  these  truths. 
Now  I  think  we  are  very  liable  to  be  misled  by 
the  opinion  of  certain  great  and  successful 
men  of  God,  who  in  the  stress  of  practical 
work  are  apt  to  underrate  the  value  of  a  liberal 


LITERATURE.  1 55 

education.  John  Wesley,  for  example,  when 
he  wrote  his  little  work  on  Entire  Sanctifica- 
tion,  described  himself  as  homo  unitis  libri. 
He  was  a  man  of  one  book,  and  that  book  the 
Bible.  One  is  apt  to  hastily  conclude  that 
therefore  a  man  will  be  thoroughly  equipped 
for  the  work  of  God  if  he  reads  no  book  but 
the  Bible.  But  whatever  was  Wesley's  prac- 
tice at  that  time,  he  had  certainly  been  a  man 
of  many  books.  Few  modern  sermons  contain 
so  many  quotations  from  ancient  literature,  or  so 
many  illusions  to  the  literature  of  all  ages,  as  his. 
Again,  Coleridge  might  say,  speaking  of  the 
Bible,  "  In  this  Book  there  is  more  that  finds 
me  than  I  have  experienced  in  all  other  books 
put  together."  But  because,  if  we  were  con- 
fined to  one  book,  we  should  all  unhesitatingly 
choose  the  Bible  as  the  one,  we  are  not  there- 
by confined  to  the  Bible.  And  while  men, 
like  Bunyan,  who  had  small  access  to  books, 
have  built  a  style,  and  a  literature,  and  a  re- 
ligion, and  a  faith  on  the  Bible  alone,  it  is 
noticeable  that  men  who,  having  the  oppor- 
tunity of  a  wider  culture,  from  some  mistaken 


156       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

notion  of  piety  resolve  to  read  nothing  but 
the  Bible,  become  narrow  and  impracticable, 
insusceptible  of  new  truths,  and,  in  due  time, 
incapable  of  understanding  the  old.  They  are 
like  one  who  has  drawn  down  the  blinds  of 
his  house  on  every  side  except  the  east,  and 
therefore  misses  the  glory  of  noonday  and  the 
purple  splendours  of  the  sunset. 

All  the  great  poets,  from  Homer  and  Hesiod 
down  to  Browning  and  Walt  Whitman,  utter 
in  the  stress  of  their  poetic  afflatus  truths  and 
feelings  which  we  can  only  explain  by  attribut- 
ing-  them    to    God   Himself.     Even  those  who 

o 

have  stained  their  white  singing  robes  and 
thrown  their  heavenly  laurel  crown  in  the  dust, 
if  they  are  real  poets,  will  utter  things  which 
are  as  truly  from  God  as  the  words  of  Balaam 
or  the  words  of  the  faithless  prophet  that  spoke 
aeainst  the  altar  at  Bethel.  Goethe  as  a  man 
seems  more  Hellenic  than  Christian,  but  Goethe 
as  a  poet  has  said  things  which  we  can  only 
gratefully  acknowledge  come  from  God.  To 
discriminate  and  distinguish  may  be  difficult; 
it  certainly  demands  a  purified  heart  and  a  true 


MORE    BOOKS    THAN    ONE.  1 57 

Christian  sensibility.  But  he  who  would  speak 
God's  word  to  his  own  generation  should  know 
the  poets  of  all  generations,  and  sit  at  their  feet, 
subject  always  to  his  Master's  control. 

And  that  department  of  mental  activity 
which  is  called  Philosophy,  whether  the  Cri- 
tique of  the  Pure  Reason,  or  the  Empiricism  of 
Inductive  Methods,  whether  simply  metaphysi- 
cal, or  ethical  and  practical,  is  charged  with 
primitive  and  continuous  revelations  of  God. 
It  should  not  be  left  to  those  who  believe  only 
in  Natural  Religion  and  deny  revelation,  to 
Theists  or  Unitarians,  —  nobly  as  they  have 
often  done  the  work,  —  to  bring  out  the  great 
fundamental  truths  of  God  and  the  Soul  and 
the  World,  which  are  given  in  the  acts  of  cog- 
nition and  volition,  and  are  brought  into  start- 
ling and  convincing  clearness  by  the  existence 
and  the  verdicts  of  the  Moral  Sense.  It  is  true 
that  the  Bible  does  not  contain  a  system  of 
philosophy,  or  approach  the  question  of  relig- 
ion from  the  purely  philosophical  standpoint; 
but  the  reason  of  this  is  that  it  assumes  through- 
out that  human  nature  as  such  is  Thought,  and 


158       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

that  In  Thought  is  contained  that  proof  of  God 
and  the  Soul  which  is  the  necessary  presuppo- 
sition of  all  religion. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  the  view 
I  am  now  advocating  is  not  that  a  preacher 
should  be  familiar  with  all  the  various  schools 
and  systems  of  philosophy,  but  that  every  man 
of  God  must  be  awake  to  the  message  of  God 
which  is  given  to  us  in  consciousness  directly 
we  come  to  reflect,  and  is  interpreted  with 
more  or  less  exactness  by  the  great  thinkers 
or  philosophers. 

4.  The  vehicle  of  the  Word  which  we  have 
just  examined  is  sufficiently  large  and  various : 
but  that  to  which  we  now  pass  makes  even 
more  demands  upon  our  attention  and  effort. 
Indeed,  except  in  a  limited  and  almost  conven- 
tional sense,  religious  people  scarcely  admit 
that  God  is  speaking  to  man  in  the  visible 
universe  and  in  the  order  of  nature.  We  are 
tempted  to  look  askance  at  Physical  Science, 
forgetting  that  it  is  the  careful  and  co-ordinated 
observation  of  things  which  must  be  the  expres- 
sion of  the  mind  of  God.     We  dread  Material- 


GOD    IN    NATURE.  1 59 

ism,  not  knowing  that  it  is  simply  a  stepping- 
stone  into  the  audience  chamber  of  God ;  a 
stone  on  which  materiahsts  are  apt  unnecessa- 
rily to  linger,  but  which  we  may  and  ought  to 
use  in  our  swift  and  eager  ascent  to  Him. 
Again,  that  unscientific  appreciation  of  Nature 
which  results  from  brooding  with  thoughtful 
and  tender  insight  upon  its  changing  aspects 
until  it  seems  to  be,  in  the  words  of  the  chief 
hierophant  of  that  cult  — 

a  mighty  Being  awake 
That  does  with  its  eternal  music  make 
A  noise  Hke  thunder  everlastingly,  — 

is  sometimes  regarded  with  suspicion  as  a  kind 
of  Pantheism.  Our  orthodox  Theology  and 
our  Homiletics  of  the  Schools  do  not  as  a 
rule  take  into  account  that  the  truth  and 
beauty  of  things  are  words  of  God  which 
must  be  read  and  interpreted  by  the  man  of 
God.  And  owing  to  this  limitation  Science 
and  Poetry  are  too  frequently  found  at  vari- 
ance with  Theology,  pursuing  a  course  of  their 
own. 


l60       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

Strange  to  say,  this  narrowness  of  concep- 
tion which  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  interests 
of  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  is  singularly 
un- Biblical.  The  Bible  begins  with  a  Poem 
of  Creation,  which,  enumerating  the  several 
orders  of  existence  as  they  were  known  at  the 
time,  sees  in  all  the  variety  and  perfection  of 
the  Cosmos  a  manifestation  of  the  Creator 
who  called  it  into  being.  The  poet  who  com- 
posed the  Book  of  Job  had  meditated  upon 
the  phenomena  of  Nature,  and  especially  the 
majesty  and  strength  of  the  larger  mammals, 
until  he  seemed  to  hear  the  very  voice  of  the 
Almighty  chanting  the  psalm  of  the  earth  and 
its  teeming  life.  Poet  as  he  was,  he  drew 
his  inspiration,  not  from  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets,  but  from  Nature  and  human  expe- 
rience. And  St.  Paul,  you  will  remember, 
launching  out  upon  his  most  elaborate  Theo- 
logical Essay,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
pauses  to  observe  that  distinct  word  of  God 
in  Nature  which  renders  all  men  without 
excuse  in  their  ignorance  and  vice,  "  for  the 
unseen   things   of   Him   from  the   founding  of 


NATURAL    RELIGION    IN    THE    BIBLE.  l6l 

the  Cosmos  mentally  apprehended  in  His 
handiwork  are  practically  ^^^;^  —  both  His  in- 
visible power  and  divinity." 

If,  then,  we  would  follow  the  teaching  of  the 
Bible  we  must  expect  a  word  of  God  to  come 
to  us  outside  the  Bible,  from  nature  and  the 
order  of  created  things.  Science  is  a  word  of 
God,  and  the  poetic  and  rapturous  perception 
of  beauty  in  the  universe  is  a  word  of  God. 
They  who  shut  their  minds  against  proved 
facts  of  science  are  closing  their  ears  to  the 
voice  of  God,  and  when  they  do  it  in  the 
interests  of  what  they  would  call  The  Word  of 
God  they  are  adding  blasphemy  to  ignorance, 
and  are  numbered  among  the  false  prophets. 
The  supreme  value  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  is  that  it  is  quite  sincere.  Science 
was  in  a  very  elementary  stage,  but  the  Seer 
gave  his  message,  using  the  best  sources  of 
information  he  possessed.  But  when  a  modern 
teacher  chooses  to  ignore  the  patient  toil  and 
true  discoveries  of  geologists  and  physiologists, 
and  will  have  it  that  God  had  told  mankind 
all  He  meant  them  to  know  about  the  Crea- 


1 62       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

tion  two  thousand  years  before  the  dawn  of  a 
scientific  epoch,  that  teaching  has  become  an 
insincerity.  It  is  intended  to  honour  the  Bible, 
but  being  a  dishonour  to  Truth  it  ultimately 
brings  discredit  on  the  Book  which  is  above 
all  others  a  book  of  Truth. 

I  have  nothing  to  say  here  about  the  specu- 
lations of  Darwin  and  Haeckel  and  Huxley. 
As  thinkers  and  philosophers  these  great 
scientists  may  have  very  little  that  is  final  to 
say ;  but  as  observers  and  recorders  of  the 
facts  of  the  universe  they  and  all  other  honest 
workers  in  the  realm  of  physical  science  are 
spelling  out  for  us  the  words  of  God.  They 
may  be  working  in  the  freedom  of  sonship  and 
rejoicing  in  the  handiwork  of  their  Father,  or 
they  may  be  working  as  mere  task-slaves  under 
the  whip  of  destiny,  bringing  their  tale  of  facts 
without  love  or  reverence  or  light ;  but  the 
facts  they  report,  when  verified  and  proved, 
are  Divine.  The  man  of  God  receives  them. 
In  this  sense  Christianity  should  make  use  of 
Materialism. 

It  should  also  make  use  of  Pantheism  —  or 


THE    WORD    OF    GOD    IN    SCIENCE.  1 63 

rather  assert  the  rights  of  a  Christian  Panthe- 
ism. For  undoubtedly  the  world  is  palpitating 
with  the  message  of  God  if  only  we  had  pure 
hearts  and  reverent  minds  to  receive  it.  As 
one  who  might  be  called  a  Christian  Pantheist 

said  — 

The  word  by  seers  and  sibyls  told 
In  groves  of  oak  or  fanes  of  gold 
Still  floats  upon  the  morning  wind, 
Still  whispers  to  the  willing  mind. 

Will  you  let  me  read  —  in  place  of  further 
comment  on  this  point  —  a  transcript  from  a 
note-book  written  one  September  morning  on 
a  flat  and  featureless  shore  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mersey .f^  "A  day  of  singular  beauty;  the 
avTjpiOiJiov  yeXacrfxa,  not  ttovticop  Kvixdrcav^  but 
yaX.Tfvrjf;,  more  beautiful  than  I  ever  noticed  it, 
and  in  the  clear  air  Southport,  eight  miles 
away  across  the  waters,  looks  close  at  hand,  the 
faint  line  of  hills  behind  it  exquisitely  soft. 
Surely  in  such  a  day  God  becomes  almost 
apprehensible,  and  one  wonders  at  the  wealth 
of  His  manifestations  and  at  the  insensibility 
of  men  who  do  not  perceive  Him.    Will  all  the 


164       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

unobserved  loveliness  of  His  creation  rise  up 
in  judgment  against  us  one  day,  rebuking  us 
that  we  did  not  perceive  and  know  Him  in 
signs  so  clear  to  understanding  eyes  and  so 
moving  to  sensitive  hearts  ?  Were  we  ready 
and  in  tune  perhaps  He  would  press  in  upon 
us  at  every  point  and  every  day." 

Certainly  it  is  impossible  to  count  any  man 
of  God  adequately  equipped  to  speak  the 
Word  of  God  to  the  moder7i  7nind  whose  whole 
culture  and  spiritual  appreciation  are  pre- 
scientific,  and,  if  it  is  lawful  to  describe  a  men- 
tal state  by  a  typical  man,  pre-Wordsworthian. 
He  may  give  an  authentic  word  of  God,  so  far 
as  it  goes,  with  a  blindness  to  natural  beauty 
as  complete  as  St.  Paul's  or  St.  Bernard's,  and 
with  an  ignorance  of  scientific  results  as  un- 
broken as  St.  John's  or  St.  Francis  of  Assisi's  ; 
but  to  minds  that  are  saturated  with  the  truths 
which  God  has  manifested  in  these  later  times 
he  will  seem  distant,  unreal,  and  unconvincing. 
Not,  of  course,  because  he  is  not  right  in  the 
word  which  he  has  delivered,  but  because  he  is 
deaf  to  other  words  which  God  has  been  speak- 


"more  light  and  truth."  165 

ino:.  "  It  is  the  office  of  a  true  teacher  to  show 
us  that  God  is,  not  was  —  that  He  speaketh, 
not  spoke."  And  if  the  teacher  is  ignorant  of 
God's  more  recent  utterances  the  world  will 
not  unnaturally  suppose  that  his  authority 
on  the  more  ancient  utterances  is  open  to 
question. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  last  point  in  the 
present  lecture. 

5.  "  The  Lord  has  yet  more  light  and  truth 
to  break  forth  from  His  written  Word,"  said 
John  Robinson,  the  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers.  On  a  recent  memorable  occasion  a 
distinsfuished  Puritan  minister  of  the  United 
States  argued  before  a  large  London  assembly 
of  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  that 
John  Robinson  meant  by  the  famous  dictum 
that  God's  revelation,  and  the  progress  of  His 
purpose,  were  to  be  sought  exclusively  in  the 
Canon  of  Sacred  Scripture.  If  that  was  really 
the  meaning  of  John  Robinson  it  would  only 
illustrate  the  truth  which  Macaulay  used  to 
emphasise,  that  the  greatest  minds  are  not 
able  to  bind  the  future  in  all  things  because 


1 66     thp:  word  of  god  outside  the  bible. 

they  were  pioneers  in  one  thing:  "prooress 
goes  on,  till  schoolboys  laugh  at  the  jargon 
which  imposed  on  Bacon,  till  country  rectors 
condemn  the  illiberality  and  intolerance  of  Sir 
Thomas  More."  But  even  in  the  limited 
meaning  of  the  words  which  Dr.  Goodwin 
attached  to  them  there  is  a  truth  which  we 
must  carefully  observe. 

The  Bible  itself  is  in  so  unique  and  peculiar 
a  sense  the  Word  of  God  that  just  in  propor- 
tion as  we  receive  a  veritable  word  from  God 
in  other  directions  w^e  return  to  the  Bible  to 
find  the  message  there  more  luminous,  more 
harmonious,  more  Divine.  "  Light  and  truth 
break  out "  of  familiar  passages  so  that  we 
wonder  why  we  never  read  them  in  that  way 
before. 

The  course  of  Church  history,  for  example, 
and  the  writings  of  great  Church  fathers  from 
the  beginning  until  now  are  a  noble  and  living 
commentary  upon  the  Sacred  Text.  Each 
passage  becomes  like  a  house  hung  with  the 
spoils  of  the  conquered  and  the  votive  offer- 
ings   of  conquerors;  and  as  we  attach  to  the 


"from  the  written  word."  167 

familiar  words  the  deeds  which  they  have 
wrought  in  the  spiritual  conflict,  we  penetrate 
their  meaning  and  appreciate  their  potency 
with  a  growing  surprise. 

Or,  to  take  another  example,  never  did  we 
understand  the  grandeur  and  simplicity  of  the 
primitive  world-history  contained  in  the  open- 
ing chapters  of  Genesis  until  the  decipherment 
of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  and  the  discovery 
of  the  Library  of  Assurbanipal  enabled  us  to 
set  the  narrative  side  by  side  with  the  Chal- 
dean records.  New  light  and  truth,  indeed, 
broke  out  from  the  Creation-poem  and  the 
story  of  Eden  and  the  account  of  the  Flood, 
when  the  comparison  revealed  how  a  firm 
monotheism  and  a  devout  faith  in  the  livins; 
God  could  read  a  Divine  significance  in  the 
earliest  traditions  of  man.  The  Book  of  the 
Dead,  or  the  Rig-veda,  or  the  Zend-avesta, 
forms  an  admirable  foil  to  set  off  the  incompar- 
able value  of  Bible  teachinor,  and  if  it  enlarges 
our  thought  of  God  to  find  that  He  has  shown 
light  and  truth  to  other  peoples  also,  it  still 
more  enlarges  our  thought  of  the  Bible  to  find 


1 68      THE    WORD    OF   GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

how  much  more  light  and  truth  were  shown  to 
that  chosen  people  with  whom  God  has  dealt 
as  with  no  other,  and  how  perfectly  the  broken 
lights  and  scattered  truths  are  gathered  up 
and  presented  in  the  Person  of  the  Incarnate 
Word. 

The  same  remark  may  be  made  about  His- 
tory, Literature,  Philosophy,  Art,  Science, 
Poetry.  It  is  not  only  obscurantism,  but  it  is  a 
folly  and  impiety  to  reject  the  singular  ser- 
vices which  all  these  vehicles  of  truth  render 
to  the  written  Word  in  brinmnor  out  from  it 
more  light  and  truth.  The  critical  study  of 
history  is  a  very  modern  science,  but  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  Bible  history  has  acquired 
a  new  value  and  a  new  certainty  since  it  was 
subjected  to  the  tests  of  historical  criticism. 
Something  has  been  lost,  something  has  been 
gained ;  but  what  has  been  lost  is  merely 
fiction,  what  has  been  gained  is  truth.  Our 
children  will  read  the  history  of  Israel  and 
the  priceless  memoirs  of  the  Evangelists  with 
new  eyes,  with  firmer  faith,  with  deeper  love. 
The   whole    method    of    what    is    called    the 


THE    POETS.  169 

Higher  Criticism  is  strictly  a  light  and  a  truth 
which  has  broken  out  from  the  Bible  itself. 
It  was  the  closer  and  more  careful  study  of 
the  original  documents  which  led  to  the  re- 
casting and  rearrangement  of  the  Biblical 
literature.  The  philosophers  have  all  con- 
tributed something,  from  the  Schoolmen  down 
to  the  Hegelians,  towards  a  deeper  apprehen- 
sion of  Bible  thought.  The  Art  of  Christen- 
dom began  in  an  attempt  to  illustrate  the 
Bible,  and  in  proportion  to  its  real  greatness 
and  permanency  has  been  its  power  of  inter- 
preting the  truths  of  the  Bible.  Science  has 
not  been  recognised  as  an  ally  of  Revelation, 
neither  were  the  prophets,  nor  even  Christ 
and  His  apostles,  at  first.  But  the  enlarged 
universe  which  Science  has  shown  us  will  not 
result  in  dwarfing  the  spiritual  things  which 
are  essentially  infinite.  And  Poetry  beyond 
all  question  has  revealed  the  meaning  of  the 
written  Word  again  and  again  where  theo- 
logians have  failed.  Spenser  is  like  a  soft 
summer  sunshine  shed  over  the  whole  range 
of   Biblical  thought.     Milton  is  like   a  planet 


lyO       THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OUTSIDE    THE    BIBLE. 

that  shines  in  the  unexplored  vault  of  the 
Book.  Cowper  is  like  the  shaded  lamp  which 
sheds  its  radiance  on  the  open  page.  Words- 
worth is  the  clear  light  of  the  dawn  that 
prepares  for  the  rising  of  the  sun.  Long- 
fellow and  Whittier,  Browning  and  Tennyson, 
are  indispensable  companions  for  the  modern 
mind  in  ranging  through  the  circles  of  the 
Bible. 

If  any  justification  were  needed  for  listening 
diligently  to  the  voice  of  God  which  sounds 
outside  of  the  Bible  it  might  be  found  in  this, 
that  penetrated  with  those  more  varied,  vague, 
and  vagrant  words  of  God  which  are  in  our 
ears  on  every  hand,  we  return  to  the  Book  to 
find  indeed  that  "  God  has  more  light  and  truth 
to  break  forth  from  His  written  Word." 


LECTURE    VI. 


LECTURE    VI. 

ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

The  subject  of  the  lecture  to-day  is  one 
which  may  well  make  the  lecturer  put  his 
hand  on  his  mouth,  and  hush  him  into  the 
silence  of  contrition  and  self-condemnation.  I 
have  to  speak  to  you  of  the  way,  or  the  ways, 
in  which  the  preacher  is  now,  and  always,  to 
receive  the  Word  of  God  in  order  to  deliver  it 
to  the  people.  It  is  a  hard  task  to  hold  up  a 
lantern  to  illumine  the  path  for  others,  when 
the  light  exposes  the  manifold  defects  of  the 
bearer. 

It  will  be  a  relief  and  a  help  to  put  in  the 
forefront  of  what  has  now  to  be  said  the  exam- 
ple of  a  great  preacher  who  has  long  ago  passed 
away.  We  are  told  in  the  life  of  Samuel  Ruth- 
erford, one  of  the  most  immediately  inspired 

173 


174  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

men  in  that  period  of  inspiration,  the  time  of 
the  Covenant  and  of  the  Confession,  —  the  mid- 
seventeenth  century, — that  during  his  minis- 
try at  Anwoth  it  was  his  custom  to  spend  hours 
at  a  time  in  a  httle  wood  near  the  manse,  seek- 
ing and  undoubtedly  enjoying  a  direct  com- 
munication with  Christ.  He  would  pace  up 
and  down  in  the  exercise  of  prayer;  he  would 
wrestle  and  toil  until  the  heavy  veil  grew  thin 
—  and  the  Person  of  his  Lord  was  manifestly 
before  him.  The  consequence  was  that  when 
he  appeared  in  the  pulpit  on  Sundays  the  peo- 
ple were  overawed  with  the  sense  of  Christ 
being  in  the  preacher.  It  was  Christ's  face 
they  saw  beaming  on  them  in  the  face  of  their 
pastor,  and  his  tones  thrilled  with  the  power  of 
the  voice  which  once  spoke  on  earth  as  never 
man  spake.  Not  only  the  little  parish  of 
Anwoth  on  the  Solway  Firth,  but  the  whole 
county  of  Galloway,  was  moved  by  this  man's 
ministry.  People  came  from  afar,  ostensibly  to 
hear  Rutherford,  really  to  see  Jesus.  I  am  not 
able  to  say  whether  this  Scotch  divine  was  a 
man  of  natural  eloquence  —  all  that  has  come 


SAMUEL    RUTHERFORD.  I  75 

down  to  US  from  him  is  already  so  saturated  with 
this  Christly  communion  that  it  is  not  possible 
to  discriminate  surely,  or  to  mark  precisely, 
where  Rutherford  ceases  and  Christ  begins. 
But  one  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  effects 
produced  by  his  ministry  were  decidedly  inde- 
pendent of  eloquence.  Indeed,  eloquence  is  a 
gift  which  the  Lord  does  not  often  use  much 
for  His  purposes  —  it  is  a  prancing  palfrey 
which  the  Son  of  Man  rarely  rides.  Moses  was 
not  eloquent,  Aaron  was.  The  word  of  the 
Lord  came  constantly  to  Moses.  Aaron  had 
gifts  of  speech,  but  he  made  a  golden  calf. 
Jeremiah  was  not  eloquent  —  his  opponents  ap- 
parently were.  Jeremiah  stands  on  the  summit 
of  prophetic  work,  and  the  wordy  men  who 
gained  the  popular  ear  in  his  day  are  pilloried 
in  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  deceiv- 
ers. Paul  was  not  eloquent,  so  he  tells  us  — 
Apollos  was,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  too. 
Yet  we  gather  that  Paul,  with  his  poor  presence, 
his  involved  periods,  his  arguments  like  the 
fiery  grinding  of  a  wheel  on  granite,  received 
and  delivered  more  of  the  w^ord  of  the  Lord 


176  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

than  Apollos.  It  would  be  dangerous  to  take 
illustrations  nearer  at  hand.  And  it  is  enough 
simply  to  say  that  natural  eloquence  may 
easily  be  a  snare  to  a  preacher.  Words  may 
come  so  abundantly  that  he  will  not  wait  to 
hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  To  obtain  the 
copious  flow  of  ideas  and  images  and  feelings 
may  be  so  easy  to  him  that  he  will  not  take 
the  trouble  to  traverse  the  barren  wastes  which 
lie  between  him  and  the  Mount  of  God,  or  to 
climb  the  dizzy  path  to  the  gloomy  cavern 
where  the  still  small  voice  is  heard.  If,  of 
course,  he  does  not  shrink  from  the  toilsome 
conditions  and  does  actually  receive  the  Word, 
his  eloquence  may  stand  him  in  good  stead. 
Eloquence  is  useful  if  the  Word  is  there,  but 
it  must  not  be  mistaken  for  the  Word. 

Now  what  are  the  ways  of  receiving  the  Word 
—  nay,  what  is  the  threefold  way  of  receiv- 
ing it  ?  for  there  are  not  many  ways,  but  one. 
How  easily  we  can  all  answer  the  question  — 
how  hardly  can  we  put  in  practice  our  answer ! 
The  threefold  way  of  receiving  the  word  of  the 
Lord   is   study,  meditation,  prayer  —  prayerful 


HOW    IS    THE    WORD    RECEIVED?  1 77 

study,  studious  meditation,  meditative  prayer, 
and  again,  as  the  girdle  that  binds  on  all 
pieces  of  the  armour,  prayer,  long,  secret 
pleadings,  passionate  and  definite  requests, 
firm  and  believing  grasps  of  the  handle 
which  prayer  presents. 

I  almost  hesitate  to  speak  of  these  ways  in 
succession  lest  they  should  seem  to  be  divided, 
yet  I  must  needs  speak  of  each  separately,  for 
the  triple  way  demands  all  three. 

The  first,  however,  will  not  require  a  very 
prolonged  consideration,  for  all  the  previous 
lectures  have  led  up  to  it  and  shown  the 
necessity  for  it.  And  yet  the  place  of  study  in 
receiving  the  word  of  the  Lord  requires  a 
special  emphasis  in  that  view  of  preaching 
which  is  now  occupying  our  attention. 

I.  Study.  Much  was  said  about  Bible  study 
in  the  Fourth  Lecture,  and  some  hints  were 
thrown  out  in  the  last  Lecture  about  detecting 
the  Word  of  God  through  other  fields  of  study. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  overstate  the  certainty 
that  apart  from  earnest  study  of  the  facts 
around  us,  the  signs  of  the  times,  the  move- 


178  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

ments  of  thought,  the  trend  of  development, 
it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  read  aright  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  as  it  comes  to  his  own 
generation.  The  prophets  of  Israel  were  like 
the  eye  and  the  ear  and  the  tongue  of  the 
people  to  which  they  belonged,  and  on  that 
account  saw,  heard,  and  delivered  the  message 
of  the  Lord.  They  were  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  social  conditions  of  their  day  —  they 
were  keenly  alive  to  the  political  movements 
of  the  time  —  the  religion  in  which  their 
spirits  were  imbued  was  above  everything  a 
practical  religion.  Amos  was  a  social  reformer, 
and  repudiated  the  title  of  prophet.  Micah 
was  a  moralist,  who  could  see  no  meaning  in 
religion  except  goodness.  Isaiah  was  a  states- 
man rather  than  a  preacher.  Jeremiah  spent 
his  life  in  a  sphere  of  activity  to  which  the 
nearest  modern  parallels  would  be  the  career 
of  Guiseppe  Mazzini,  or  that  of  Louis  Kossuth. 
What  the  prophets  saw  of  Divine  Truth  was 
all  presented  in  the  colour  and  the  conditions 
of  their  own  day  —  the  kingdom  of  God  was  in 
the  heavens  just  beyond  their  horizon,  but  in 


STUDY.  179" 

looking  to  it  and  for  it  their  vision  was  occupied 
with  what  was  near  at  hand  to  them.  The 
difference  between  a  false  and  a  true  prophet 
was  often  that  the  one  was  too  unobservant  to 
read  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  other 
was  a  student.  As  Schultz  says,  following 
Duhm,  looking  at  the  matter  in  a  purely  his- 
torical way  we  cannot  question  that  those  who 
have  come  down  to  us  as  false  prophets,  e.g., 
the  opponents  of  Jeremiah,  were  often  person- 
ally quite  convinced  all  along  that  they  were 
uttering  the  will  of  God,  though  they  were 
influenced  by  one-sided  truths,  or  by  concep- 
tions which  under  changed  circumstances  had 
ceased  to  correspond  to  the  view  of  God.^  It 
is  a  solemn  reflection.  There  have  of  course 
always  been  prophets  who,  according  to 
Amaziah's  scornful  judgment,  preach  in  order 
to  earn  their  bread.^  But  there  are  preachers 
who  are  entirely  above  these  mercenary  con- 
siderations, men  sincere  and  open  as  the  day, 
men  wishing  to  be  true  and  to  defend  the 
truth,    who    are    yet    false    prophets    through 

^  Offenbariingsreligiflu,  p.  236.  ^  ^^nos  vii.  12. 


*l8o  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

ignorance.  They  will  not  take  the  trouble  to 
master  the  truths  which  God  has  put  before 
them :  they  blindly  denounce  as  secular  the 
revelation  of  God,  because  it  happens  to  be 
made  in  their  own  time ;  they  make  it  a  point 
of  duty  to  keep  outside  the  national,  the  social, 
the  political  life,  in  which  their  lot  has  been 
cast. 

I  remember  once  being  sorely  perplexed 
by  a  man  in  our  own  country  who  seemed 
thoroughly  earnest  and  devout,  and  exercised, 
on  that  account,  a  wide  influence  over  minds 
of  a  certain  order.  But  in  his  advocacy  of 
truth  he  was  violent,  unjust,  ill-mannered, 
ignorant.  His  writings  were  like  oil  of  vitriol, 
and  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  how  he  could 
be  speaking  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  Here  evi- 
dently was  what  every  one  was  bound  to  rec- 
ognise as  a  true  man  and  yet  a  false  prophet. 
My  perplexity  was  removed  when  I  made  the 
accidental  discovery  that  he  had  conscien- 
tiously for  many  years  refrained  from  reading 
any  book  besides  the  Bible.  That  of  course 
meant  to  say  that  he  would  have  been  a  true 


STUDY    OF    FACTS.  l8l 

prophet  if  he  had  been  living  in  the  time  of 
Moses,  or  in  the  days  of  the  Maccabees,  or  even 
at  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  our  era,  but 
through  ignoring  all  the  truth  which  God  has 
been  displaying  to  the  world  through  these 
eighteen  centuries,  and  through  obstinately 
hardening  his  heart  against  the  facts  which 
are  open  to  all  careful  inquirers  to-day  he  had 
become  a  false  prophet. 

The  word  of  God,  as  we  see  in  the  Bible, 
always  plays  like  a  lambent  flame  about  the 
facts  which  are  known  at  the  time.  On  minds 
which  still  had  the  primitive  idea  of  creation 
described  in  the  Priestly  Code  it  came  with 
revealing  power,  and  brought  out  the  deep 
religious  meaning  of  creation.  But  if  the  word 
of  God  is  to  come  upon  us  with  like  power  we 
must  master  the  facts  concerning  the  process 
of  creation  which  a  century  of  patient  and 
reverent  investigation  has  collected.  To  men 
who  had  in  their  hands  the  early  traditions, 
and  the  historiographical  records  of  their 
nation,  the  Word  of  God  came  enablino-  them 
to  write  spiritually  and  didactically  the  history 


1 82  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

of  Israel  :  but  if  the  Word  of  God  is  to  come 
to  us  in  the  same  manner  we  must  not  only 
accept  the  light  of  historical  science  on  this 
history  of  Israel,  but  we  must  acquaint  our- 
selves with  the  history  of  other  nations,  and 
especially  of  our  own.  The  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  is  as  divine  as  the  history 
of  the  Hebrew  race ;  and  one  reason  why 
modern  preachers  are  comparatively  powerless 
in  affecting  their  contemporaries,  is  that  they 
are  not,  like  Hebrew  prophets,  patriots  with  a 
deep  and  divine  love  of  their  country,  and  a 
firm  and  vital  conviction  that  God  is  con- 
trolling its  affairs  and  developing  its  growth. 

It  is  not  possible  to  decide  what  depart- 
ments of  knowledge  must  be  studied  by  the 
preacher.  Indeed  since  no  man  can  study 
everything,  each  must  follow  the  line  of  his 
own  bent  and  capacity.  One  preacher  may  be 
specially  a  student  of  science,  another  of  his- 
tory, another  of  philosophy,  another  of  litera- 
ture. Here  and  there  a  man  may  have  grace 
to  be  a  student  of  theology  without  being 
spoiled  as  a  preacher.     The  lines  of  thought 


STUDY    OF    FACTS.  1 83 

and  work  are  various,  but  the  point  to  be  en- 
forced is  that  real  study  should  be  bestowed 
on  whichever  line  is  selected.  Desultory  read- 
ing is  the  bane  of  preachers,  followed  by  a 
rapid  decline  into  anecdotage.  In  other  de- 
partments of  activity  every  one  sees  the  neces- 
sity of  close  and  connected  application,  of 
mental  toil  which  is  not  relaxed  for  conven- 
ience or  for  comfort  or  for  pleasure.  Too 
often  the  man  of  God  becomes  indolent  and 
intellectually  self-indulgent.  He  ceases  to 
work  hard  at  things.  His  eye  ranges  leisurely 
over  anything  or  everything.  He  makes  news- 
papers and  magazines  the  staple  of  his  self- 
discipline,  and  even  with  his  Bible  he  follows 
ingloriously  any  commentator  who  may  be  at 
hand. 

But  if  a  man  expects  to  hear  God  speaking 
in  this  day  and  generation  he  must  be  alert 
and  active.  Every  faculty  must  be  used.  No 
opportunity  must  be  missed.  He,  more  than 
most,  must  know  "something  of  all  things  and 
all  of  something."  For  mental  discipline  he 
must  have  his  special  subject  at  which  he  con- 


184  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

scientiously  labours.  For  variety  and  com- 
pleteness he  must  bring  his  practised  powers 
to  range  over  other  subjects  as  occasion  offers. 
The  man  who  speaks  for  God  must  be  educated 
thoroughly,  not  necessarily  in  the  collegiate 
sense,  but  in  the  sense  that  all  his  faculties  are 
in  full  activity  —  observation,  reasoning,  mem- 
ory, imagination,  exercised  and  trained. 

When  God  wishes  to  play  upon  an  instru- 
ment and  give  a  high  music  to  men.  He  does 
not  want  to  find  that  the  best  stops  are  out 
of  use,  and  that  the  swell  organ  and  the  pedals 
were  never  finished. 

II.  But  I  turn  quickly  now  to  the  second 
strand  in  the  triple  means  of  receiving  the 
Word,  less  observed  and  therefore  more  re- 
quiring comment  —  Meditation. 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Faerie  Queene 
which,  like  a  great  deal  else  that  Spenser 
wrote,  puts  into  the  form  and  colour  of  allegory 
a  deep  spiritual  truth.  It  is  in  the  description 
of  the  House  of  Holiness  (bk.  i.  c.  x.  47),  where 
the  Red  Cross  knight  is  taken  to  visit  the  holy 
man 


MEDITATION.  1 85 

That  day  and  night  said  his  devotion, 
No  other  worldly  business  did  apply ; 
His  name  was  heavenly  Contemplation ; 
Of  God  and  goodness  was  his  meditation. 

Great  grace  that  old  man  to  him  given  had ; 
For  God  he  often  saw  from  Heaven's  height : 
All  were  his  earthly  eyes  both  blunt  and  bad, 
And  through  great  age  had  lost  their  kindly  sight, 
Yet  wondrous  quick  and  persaunt  was  his  spright 
As  eagle's  eye  that  can  behold  the  sun. 

The  knight  with  his  guide  questions  him  a 
Httle,  and  then  he  is  led  by  Contemplation  to 
a  hill-top. 

From  thence,  far  off  he  unto  him  did  show 
A  little  path  that  was  both  steep  and  long, 
Which  to  a  goodly  City  led  his  view. 
Whose  walls  and  towers  were  builded  high  and  strong 
Of  pearl  and  precious  stone  that  earthly  tongue 
Cannot  describe,  nor  wit  of  man  can  tell ; 
Too  high  a  ditty  for  my  simple  song. 
The  city  of  the  Great  King  hight  it  well. 
Wherein  eternal  peace  and  happiness  doth  dwell. 

If  study  is  the  contemplation  of  visible  things, 
then  meditation  is  the  study  of  things  unseen ; 
and  while  much  of  the  Word  of  God  can  come 


1 86  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

to  US  in  the  facts  which  appeal  to  the  senses, 
when  they  are  rightly  interpreted  by  the 
Spirit,  the  Word  of  God  in  its  fulness  does 
not,  and  cannot,  come  through  the  senses  — 
"  eye  does  not  see,  ear  does  not  hear,  the  heart 
does  not  conceive."  Unless  the  man  of  God 
has  got  access  within  the  veil,  unless  he  is 
accustomed  to  handle  things  unseen,  unless 
his  inward  eye  is  occupied  with  the  imme- 
diate revelation  of  God,  unless  the  communi- 
cations of  God  come  to  him  in  an  immediate 
and  authentic  way,  he  will  never  be  able  to 
show  to  men 

The  little  path  that  is  both  steep  and  long, 

which  leads  upward  to  the  Spiritual  City. 

Habits  of  meditation  are  not  easily  formed. 
A  certain  strength  and  agility  of  soul  are 
demanded  for  it.  Not  without  reason  did 
the  great  seer,  Michael  Angelo,  paint  the 
prophets  in  heroic  mould  with  tough  sinews 
and  massive  brows.  They  must  be  athletes  — 
and  in  good  training  too  —  that  would  tread 
the  path  of  meditation.     On  the  one  hand,  it 


MEDITATION.  1 87 

is  comparatively  easy  to  study  and  to  reason ; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  far  too  easy  to  wander 
in  the  idle  ways  of  listless  reverie.  But  medi- 
tation is  very  far  removed  from  both  these 
analogous  processes.  It  differs  from  study 
because  it  does  not  demand  books  or  mate- 
rials gathered  in  the  realm  of  outward  things, 
nor  does  it  employ  the  familiar  methods  of 
ratiocination.  It  differs  from  reverie  because 
it  is  not  passive,  but  active,  it  does  not  follow 
the  path  of  least  resistance  in  the  trooping 
and  swaying  imaginations  of  the  heart,  but 
rather  it  faces  all  obstacles  and  presses  con- 
sciously to  a  goal. 

Meditation  is  the  stedfast  setting  of  the 
mind  on  things  unseen  and  eternal,  on  God 
and  the  soul,  on  the  authority  and  dictates 
of  the  moral  law,  on  life,  not  as  it  is  broken 
in  the  kaleidoscope  of  experience,  but  as  it 
is  apprehended  in  the  white  light  of  its  idea. 
No  one  is  likely  to  enter  the  path  of  medita- 
tion and  to  quiet  his  breast  for  the  task  of 
reception  unless  he  believes  that  there  is  an 
overarching  Being  that  waits  to  impress  itself 


1 88  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

upon  the  prepared  spirit,  that  there  is  a  God 
who  draws  nigh  to  them  that  draw  nigh  unto 
Him.  As  a  rule  men  have  not  faith  enouo:h 
to  meditate.  They  have  just  faith  enough  to 
study,  to  acquire  knowledge,  to  accumulate 
facts,  and  from  a  wide  induction  to  make 
a  venturesome  guess  at  the  origin  or  author 
of  things.  But  it  is  a  deeper  and  rare  faith 
to  be  well  persuaded  that  the  Author  of 
things  is  not  far  from  the  conscious  mind, 
and  watches  for  the  ruffled  waters  to  be  still 
that  He  may  mirror  Himself  in  their  bosom 
and  send  the  gleam  of  His  glory  along  their 
shining  surface.^  It  is  in  this  meditation  that 
a  believing  soul  may  feel  — 

A  presence  that  disturbs  him  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts ;  a  sense  subhme 

^  God,  the  only  good  of  all  intelligent  natures,  is  not  an 
absent  or  a  distant  God,  but  is  more  present  in  and  to  our 
souls  than  our  own  bodies  ;  and  we  are  strangers  to  heaven  and 
without  God  in  the  world,  for  this  only  reason,  because  we  are 
void  of  that  spirit  of  prayer  which  alone  can  unite,  and  never 
fails  to  unite,  us  with  the  one  only  Good,  and  to  open  heaven 
and  the  kingdom  of  God  within  us/'  (William  Law,  The  Spirit 
of  Prayer,  at  the  beginning.) 


MEDITATION    NEEDS    FAITH.  1 89 

Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dweUing  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things. 

It  must  have  often  struck  you  that  there  is  a 
special  faciHty  for  the  difficult  task  of  medita- 
tion in  the  night-watches.^  The  reason  for 
this  is  not  far  to  seek.  We  suffer  much  from 
the  distraction  of  the  senses.  Considering 
what  we  are,  and  whence,  "  the  world  is  too 
much  with  us  late  and  soon."  The  pageant  of 
life  rolls  past  us  too  ceaselessly,  and  though  to 
a  wise  eye  it  is  somewhat  full  of  vain  repetition, 
and  too  tawdry  and  tinselled  to  bear  close 
inspection,  the  eye  is  occupied  with  it,  con- 
stantly occupied,  and  remains  occupied  when 
the  heart  has  grown  sick  of  it  and  the  mind 
cynical  about  it.  It  is  with  an  effort  that  most 
men  avert  their  eyes  from  the  show  even  for  a 
moment.     The  divine  meaning  of  night  is  that 

^  Psa.  Ixiii.  6. 


IQO  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

the  show  is  shrouded,  and  the  eyes  are  carried 
into  far  distances,  and  settled  on  the  quiet 
hghts  in  the  infinite  abysses.  The  spirit  needs 
meditation  as  day  needs  the  night. 

An  artist  friend  of  mine,  a  painter  of  birds, 
who  lives  in  London,  tells  me  that  sometimes 
of  a  night,  when 

The  very  houses  seem  asleep, 
And  all  that  mighty  heart  is  lying  still, 

he  will  hear  far  overhead  the  strano:e  cries  of 
wild-ducks,  or  of  birds  of  passage,  that  are 
passing  melodious  over  the  unconscious  city. 

And  so  I  imagine  there  are  many  voices, 
many  movements  of  sphere-music,  many  high 
and  great  truths,  many  solemn  arguments  of 
the  spirit,  to  which  busy  men  are  quite  insen- 
sible. And  unless  the  seer  will  quiet  his  spirit 
and  listen  on  behalf  of  his  busier  fellows  those 
upper  melodies  will  remain  unknown. 

A  man  must  walk  as  seeing  Him  that  is 
invisible  if  he  is  to  show  God  to  men.  He 
must  speak  as  hearing  words  that  are  inaudible 
if  he  is  to  give  God's  messages  to  men.     Most 


THE    UNSEEN    UNIVERSE.  I9I 

people  are  well  content  with  echoes,  he  must 
have  the  Voice.  The  hirelings  about  the 
house  of  God  will  be  satisfied  with  recitations 
of  past  visions  and  the  droning  of  things  which 
others  heard.  The  true  prophet  will  hear 
for  himself,  or  not  speak.  Now  and  again, 
through  indolence  or  forgetfulness,  he  will,  like 
Nathan,  speak  his  own  word  and  encourage 
men  in  a  forbidden  path  by  some  pseudo- 
divine  approbation,  "  The  Lord  is  with  you." 
But  in  the  night  of  meditation  he  will  recover 
himself  and  will  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord 
coming  to  reverse  his  merely  human  judgment.^ 
He  will  learn  in  time  to  distinguish  very  keenly 
and  severely  between  the  ordinary  movements 
of  his  own  fallible  mind  and  the  communica- 
tions which  he  receives  from  on  high  as  one 

Which  heareth  the  words  of  God, 
Which  seeth  the  vision  of  the  Ahiiighty, 
Falling  down  and  having  his  eyes  open.^ 

There  is  a  deeply  significant  truth  written 
large   in  the   history  of  the  Mediaeval   Church. 

1  2  Sam.  vii.  1-5.  ^  Numb.  xxiv.  4. 


192  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

During  long  centuries  the  religion  of  Jesus 
seemed  to  have  fallen  into  a  mere  priestcraft. 
With  a  polity  derived  from  the  pagan  empire, 
with  worship  and  ritual  borrowed  from  Bud- 
dhism, with  a  creed  stereotyped  and  sanctioned 
by  councils  of  contentious  and  passionate  bish- 
ops, the  putative  Church  of  Christ  passed  from 
corruption  to  corruption  as  if  it  were  destined 
to  relapse  into  the  paganism  whose  garb  it  had 
assumed  —  "  the  word  of  God  was  precious ; 
there  was  no  open  vision."  The  shrines  were 
centres  of  jugglery  and  imposture,  the  central 
seat  of  the  Papacy  was  a  hotbed  of  murder  and 
vice,  of  ambition  and  tyranny.  The  student 
of  ecclesiastical  history  wonders  how  Christian- 
ity survived,  and  turns  with  sickened  heart 
from  the  story  of  Catholicism  to  the  brave  and 
simple  days  of  early  Greece  or  of  republican 
Rome.  But  there  is  a  pure  vein  of  silver  light 
and  truth  runninor  throu2:h  those  doleful  a^es. 
In  some  monastery  cell,  or  in  some  solitude  of 
the  desert,  would  be  found  a  man  who  had 
turned  away  from  the  strife,  the  ambition,  the 
worldly  pomp  of  the  Church,  to  give  his  days 


MEDIEVAL    MEDITATION.  1 93 

to  meditation  and  prayer.  A  Francis  at  Assisi 
would  be  reading  the  sweet  Word  of  God  afresh 
in  the  woodlands  and  hearing  it  in  the  twitter 
of  the  birds.  A  Bernard  would  be  fostering  a 
communion  with  Jesus,  not  the  Jesus  of  the 
wafer  and  the  cist,  not  the  Jesus  of  the  Virgin 
or  the  Crucifix,  but  the  living,  present  Saviour, 
Sovereign  and  Friend  of  the  soul ;  and  out  of 
those  rapturous  meditations  would  come  the 
words  of  loving  passion  which  were  to  lift 
myriads  of  hearts  to  their  Lord  in  song.  A 
Thomas  a  Kempis  would  in  the  strait  order  of 
his  convent  be  holding  so  close  an  intercourse 
with  Christ  that  his  Imitatio  would  come  down 
to  the  aftertime  as  a  fresh  revelation  of  the 
Divine-human  personality  subduing  the  heart 
of  His  servant  to  His  own  image.  A  Brother 
Lawrence  would  be  drawing  from  the  subtle 
alchemy  of  Spring,  in  transmuting  the  dead 
timber  into  rustling  foliage,  the  conclusion  of 
the  Presence  of  God,  in  the  practice  of  which 
he  could  grow  into  the  perfect  likeness  of  the 
Saviour  without  the  aid  of  church  or  priest,  of 
sacrament  or  ceremony. 


194  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

It  was  in  these  meditative  souls  that  the 
Word  of  God  was  always  coming  fresh  and 
pure,  not  only  maintaining  the  thin  promise  of 
life  in  the  midst  of  those  gross  corruptions, 
but  forming  into  a  vein  of  silver  ore  to  gladden 
and  enrich  all  subsequent  ages. 

In  such  meditation  the  man  of  God  must 
habitually  live. 

III.  We  now  turn  to  the  third  strand,  of 
prayer,  which  must  be  closely  and  constantly 
intertwined  with  the  other  two.  Prayerless 
study  may  make  an  erudite  or  even  an  elo- 
quent man,  but  never  a  preacher.  Prayerless 
meditation  may  issue  in  poetry  or  art,  in  tu- 
mult of  stirring  thought  or  passion  of  excited 
feeling  —  "  while  the  heart  muses  the  fire  may 
burn  "  —  but  not  in  a  revelation  of  God,  or  an 
authentic  message  from  His  lips.  A  man  who 
is  to  be  the  spokesman  of  God  must  be  much 
in  prayer ;  nay,  why  shrink  from  the  fine  apos- 
tolic hyperbole.'^  —  must  pray  without  ceasing. 
Breathing  the  atmosphere  of  prayer  he  must 
open  his  books  to  study,  and  read  in  the  open 
books  of  Nature  and  the  human  heart.     Beating 


PRAYER.  195 

the  air  on  the  strong  wings  of  prayer  he  must 
scale  the  mountain  of  meditation  and  remain 
poised  in  the  vision  of  God  to  see  the  things 
which  he  is  to  communicate.  He  must  suspect 
even  Truth  itself  which  approaches  him  when 
he  is  prayerless,  and  may  be  sure  that  if  the 
fountain  of  prayer  has  run  dry  his  sparkling 
waters  of  rhetoric  and  reasoning  will  prove  to 
be  a  mirage  in  the  sand.  "  Much  reading  and 
thinking,"  said  Berridge,  "  may  make  a  popu- 
lar preacher,  but  much  secret  prayer  must 
make  a  powerful  preacher." 

Ah,  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ? 

But  to  give  point  to  this  contention  let  me 
quote  a  passage  from  the  Diary  of  David 
Brainerd  —  Brainerd  whom  I  am  afraid  your 
College  of  Yale  expelled  from  its  borders  for 
insubordination,  as  my  own  university  rusti- 
cated Shelley  for  daring  to  think  earnestly  and 
speak  honestly.  "  I  was  greatly  oppressed  with 
guilt  and  shame  this  morning/'  he  writes  at 
the  Forks  of  the  Delaware,  "from  a  sense  of 
my  inward  vileness  and  pollution.  About  nine 
o'clock    I  withdrew  to   the   woods  for  prayer, 


196  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

but  had  not  much  comfort.  .  .  .  Towards 
night  my  burden  respecting  my  work  among 
the  Indians  began  to  increase  much,  and  w^as 
aggravated  by  hearing  sundry  things  that 
looked  very  discouraging  —  in  particular  that 
they  intended  to  meet  together  next  day  for 
an  idolatrous  feast  and  dance.  Then  I  began 
to  be  in  anguish.  I  thought  I  must  in  con- 
science go  and  endeavour  to  break  them  up, 
and  knew  not  how  to  attempt  such  a  thing. 
However,  I  withdrew  for  prayer,  hoping  for 
strength  from  above.  And  in  prayer  I  was 
exceedingly  enlarged :  my  soul  was  as  much 
drawn  out  as  I  ever  remember  it  to  have  been 
in  my  life.  I  was  in  such  anguish  and  pleaded 
with  so  much  earnestness  and  importunity  that 
when  I  rose  from  my  knees  I  felt  extremely 
weak  and  overcome ;  I  could  scarcely  walk 
straight ;  my  joints  were  loosed  ;  the  sweat  ran 
down  my  face  and  body,  and  nature  seemed  as 
if  it  would  dissolve.  So  far  as  I  could  judge 
I  was  wholly  free  from  selfish  ends  in  my 
fervent  supplications  for  the  poor  Indians.  I 
knew  they  were  met  together  to  worship  devils 


BRAINERD.  I97 

and  not  God,  and  this  made  me  cry  earnestly 
that  God  would  now  appear  and  help  me  in  my 
attempts  to  break  up  this  idolatrous  meeting." 

He  succeeded  in  that  special  attempt ;  but 
the  story  is  familiar  to  us  all  —  how  he  suc- 
ceeded in  turning  multitudes  of  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  of  this  continent  to  Christ. 

We  have  to  remember  that  the  Word  of 
God  is  not  merely  a  collection  of  truths  which 
can  be  written  in  a  book  and  learnt  by  rote. 
It  is  not  merely  a  number  of  principles  which 
require  to  be  applied  under  new  circumstances 
to  different  cases  as  they  arise.  But  it  is  a 
vital  energy  passing  from  God  to  man  at  a 
given  time  and  in  a  given  place,  which  may  be 
compared  to  a  hammer  that  pounds  the  quartz 
rock,  or  a  keen  blade  that  severs  the  ligaments 
and  nerves  in  the  hands  of  a  dissector.  For 
the  reception  of  this  word  the  soul  must,  to 
use  David  Brainerd's  expression,  be  "  drawn 
out " ;  it  must  pass  up  to  God  like  great  feelers 
seeking  nutriment ;  it  must  wrestle  and  strive 
in  its  narrow  chamber  until  it  is  enlarged. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  printed  reports  of 


198  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

sermons  can  never  give  us  their  real  quality. 
They  can  render  sometimes  the  rhythm  of  the 
sentences,  the  musical  cadence  of  words,  the 
swift  movements  of  thought,  the  inevitable 
conclusions  to  which  the  argument  passes. 
But  it  is  only  by  hearing  a  sermon  that  you 
can  tell  whether  it  is  drenched  in  prayer;  the 
words  of  God  are  often  very  simple  sentences, 
truths  which  are  truisms ;  they  are  often  quota- 
tions and  applications  of  a  perfectly  familiar 
text.  What  gives  the  peculiar  quality  to  the 
utterance  is  not  the  sentiment  or  the  wording, 
but  the  fact  that  it  has  just  come  from  God, 
that  it  has  been  received,  in  study  or  in  medi- 
tation it  may  be,  but  certainly  by  prayer,  and 
it  quivers  down  into  the  hearts  of  men  because 
the  speaker  has  shot  the  arrow  which  the  Lord 
has  given  him,  at  a  venture  on  his  part,  but 
not  at  a  venture  on  the  Lord's. 

Scientists,  artists,  writers  frequently  give  us, 
as  the  fruit  of  their  observations  and  medita- 
tions and  lucubrations,  rare  and  beautiful 
truths,  truths  which  a  spiritual  nature  knows 
instinctively   are   from    God,    are    indeed     the 


ALL  DEPENDS  ON  PRAYER.        I99 

word  of  God.     But  the  world  does  not  receive 
these   truths    as    the    word    of    God,  does    not 
recoo-nise  their  orio-in,  because  the  men  who 
transmit  them  are  not  men  of  prayer.     On  the 
other   hand,  there   have   been    great   scientific 
investigators    hke   Faraday,    great    artists    Hke 
Fra    AngeUco,    and    great    writers    hke     John 
Foster,  who  have  wrought  at  their  tasks,  as  it 
were,  on  their  knees,  or  pacing  up  and  down 
in  vigorous  exercise  of  soul  before  God ;  and 
their  truths,  though  sometimes  to  all  appear- 
ance  secular,   have   come   home  to   the   world 
as  a  message  from  God   Himself.     Such  men 
do   not    differ    essentially    from    prophets    or 
preachers.     The   preacher's   task  is  to  imitate 
them.      He    is    a    student,    but    a    prayerful 
student;  he  is  given    to    meditation,  and    has 
"  the  inward  eye 

Which  is  the  bliss  of  soHtude  ;  " 

but  it  is  a  meditation  nourished  on  prayer. 
He  prays  always  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  By  this 
he  is  distinguished  from  the  mere  teacher  or 
lecturer.  He  receives  and  he  delivers  the 
word  of  the  Lord, 


200  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

I  remember  being  deeply  impressed  by  a 
passage  in  Smith's  description  of  Kerry,  which 
spoke  about  the  Great  SkelHg,  "  a  small  rocky 
island  once  occupied  by  a  monastery  of  St. 
Finian,  and  lashed  by  the  most  furious  waves 
of  the  Atlantic.  Women  as  well  as  men,  by 
means  of  shallow  hollows  cut  in  the  rock, 
climbed  the  smooth  and  dizzy  cliff  called  the 
Stone  of  Pain,  which  rises  many  fathoms  above 
the  sea,  visited  the  cross  on  the  summit  and 
performed  their  last  perilous  devotions  at  the 
extreme  end  of  a  projecting  ledge  of  rock,  but 
two  feet  in  breadth,  which  hangs  at  a  fearful 
height  over  the  boiling  waves." 

It  is  as  it  were  a  symbol  of  all  prayer.  Is 
the  question  raised :  How  comes  it  that  when 
God  is  so  ready  to  speak  to  men,  and  is  indeed 
ever  seeking  mouthpieces  for  His  living  and 
life-giving  word,  there  are  so  few  to  speak  it, 
the  most  part  even  of  His  professed  ministers 
being  mere  droners  at  an  altar,  or  reciters  in 
a  pulpit  of  words  which  are  merely  traditional 
and  dead,  utterly  dead;  how  comes  it  that  so 
high-famed  an  oracle  is  virtually  silent  because 


PRAYER    IS    ARDUOUS.  20I 

there  are  not  those  who  will  seat  themselves 
on  the  tripod  and  chaunt  its  verses  ?  The 
answer  is  almost  painfully  simple :  It  is  be- 
cause prayer  is  arduous,  and  few  will  seriously 
attempt  it. 

We  can  pray  no  doubt  in  the  sense  that 
morning  and  evening  we  can  utter  our  smooth 
petitions  not  unmixed  with  emotion  ;  we  can, 
too,  in  moments  of  peril  and  stress  cry  out  to 
God  with  sufficient  urgency  for  deliverance  or 
relief ;  on  rare  occasions,  under  stirring  influ- 
ences, we  can  utter  ejaculations  of  prayer 
which  are  real  and  efficacious  enouQ-h.  But  it 
is  hard,  very  hard,  to  climb  our  great  Skellig 
—  the  shallow  hollows  in  the  rock  afford  but 
uncertain  foothold  —  we  shrink  from  that  wide 
outlook  on  the  foam  of  those  perilous  and  for- 
lorn seas ;  the  head  grows  dizzy  and  the  limbs 
tremble  upon  the  narrow  ledge.  Indeed  there 
are  dark,  stormy,  and  turbulent  moments  in 
prayer,  when  the  tongue  refuses  to  speak,  and 
only  the  heart  and  the  flesh  cry  out.  We  are 
too  exposed  up  there  on  the  ridge,  and  we 
know  not  if  God  will  put  His   hand  over  us 


202  ON    RECEIVING    THE    WORD. 

while  He  passes  by  in  the  thunder  and  the 
earthquake  and  the  rain.  But  if  we  are  deter- 
mined, if  we  are  persistent  in  prayer,  if  we  can 
toil  at  books  and  men,  always  praying,  never 
fainting;  if  we  can  tread  the  desert  ways  of 
meditation,  always  praying;  if  we  can  —  in 
humble  temerity  and  with  resolution  made 
firm  by  weakness — grapple  with  God,  spirit  to 
spirit,  knee  to  knee,  hand  to  hand  —  since  He 
graciously  permits  it  —  we  may  hear  the  still 
small  voice  ;  we  may  find  truth  flowing  towards 
us  like  the  dayspring  from  the  dewy  eyelids  of 
the  morning,  or  like  the  waters  which  issue  from 
the  cool  clear  fountains  of  the  untainted  rocks ; 
we  may  speak  to  men,  not  in  the  faltering 
accents  of  surmise,  but  in  the  sharp-cut  and 
convincing  speech  of  Thus  saith  the  Lord. 


LECTURE    VII. 


LECTURE.  VII. 

THE    LOGOS. 

You  will  remember  that  in  the  last  lecture 
the  threefold  way  of  receiving  the  Word  of  God 
was  discussed  in  very  general  terms.  No  allu- 
sion was  made,  except  in  the  illustration  of 
Samuel  Rutherford  at  the  beginning,  and  in  an 
occasional  reference  here  and  there,  to  the  spe- 
cific definition  of  the  Word  which  forms  the 
very  centre  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  In 
the  third  lecture  a  good  deal  was  said  about 
the  sio^nificance  of  the  Incarnation  as  a  com- 
plete,  and,  in  a  sense,  final  manifestation  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  task  which  is  now  set 
before  us  is  to  review  the  methods  of  receiving 
the  word,  which  are  open  to  the  Christian 
preacher,  in  the  light  of  the  fact,  and  by  virtue 
of  the  operation,  of  the  Logos  or  Vcrbum  Dei 

205 


206  THE    LOGOS. 

becoming  flesh  and  being  presented  to  us  in  a 
historical  Person. 

The  main  bearing  of  this  supreme  truth  may 
be  stated  in  a  sentence,  though  the  full  exposi- 
tion of  it  is  never  likely  to  be  effected.  The 
Christian  preacher  differs  from  seekers  after 
God  such  as  Lao-Tse,  Gautama,  Zoroaster,  or 
Socrates,  and  from  prophets  of  an  older  dispen- 
sation, such  as  Moses,  Samuel,  Nathan,  Elijah, 
or  Amos,  Micah,  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  in  this 
respect,  that,  since  the  Word  of  God  has  been 
thus  specifically  revealed,  his  reception  of  it 
must  move  along  the  lines  of  the  practical 
inward  admission  and  the  personal  assimilation 
of  Christ.  He  has  a  touchstone  for  testing  the 
word  received  which  was  wanting  to  the  men 
of  God  before  the  Incarnation.  He  has  more. 
There  is  a  positive  content  of  the  Word  of  God 
which  is  set  before  him  in  the  Divine-human 
Saviour,  and  his  duty  is,  by  the  methods  which 
have  already  been  sketched,  but  with  results 
which  for  one  who  is  not  a  Christian  would  be 
impossible,  to  spell  out  the  meaning  of  that 
revealed  Word,  and  to  mystically  receive  into 


RECEIVING    CHRIST.  207 

his  own  life  and  person  and  consciousness  the 
clear  and  speaking  and  living  message,  Christ. 

The  Christian  preacher  must  be  one  "  in 
whom  Christ  is  formed,"  one  whose  personality 
has  been  subdued  by  Christ  until  every  thought 
is  in  subjection  to  Him,  and  every  exaltation  of 
the  heart  and  mind  has  been  brought  into  sub- 
mission to  Him,  one  of  whom  it  may  be  said 
with  perfect  literalness  that  "  it  is  no  longer  he 
that  lives,  but  Christ  that  lives  in  him."  If 
what  might  seem  to  be  the  word  of  God  com- 
ing to  him  ceases  to  interpret  and  to  glorify 
Christ,  he  may  know  at  once  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  not  speaking  to  him,  and  he  may  at  all 
times  verify  the  word  which  comes  through  the 
channels  of  study,  meditation,  and  prayer,  by 
observing  if  it  takes  of  the  things  of  Christ 
and  reveals  them  to  him,  if  Christ  grows  before 
his  soul  as  the  Word  of  God  Incarnate. 

Let  us  revert  for  a  moment  to  the  illustra- 
tion of  Samuel  Rutherford.  Those  lono^  medi- 
tations  and  wrestling  prayers  in  the  little  w^ood 
at  Anwoth,  which  resulted  in  the  marvellous 
sermons    of   the    Sabbath    Day,   were    not   by 


208  THE    LOGOS. 

any  means  a  vague  movement  in  the  spiritual 
void  or  a  Pantheistic  absorption  in  what  has 
been  in  our  day  called  the  Over-soul.  Nature 
does  not  seem  to  have  had  much  to  do  with 
the  impressions  received  or  the  effects  pro- 
duced, except  so  far  as  she  utters 

Such  sounds  as  make  deep  silence  in  the  heart 
For  Thought  to  do  her  part. 

The  real  process  of  that  prolonged  exercise 
was  a  close  communion  with  the  person  of 
Christ,  an  intimacy  which  more  and  more 
assumed  the  character  of  a  maintained  dia- 
logue between  the  soul  and  Him.  The 
preacher  after  such  a  preparation  appeared 
in  his  pulpit  transfigured.  The  hearer  was 
impressed  with  a  feeling  that  Christ  was 
speaking,  and  even  in  looking  up  seemed 
to  see  the  features  of  Christ  in  the  minister's 
transparent  face.  Those  letters  which  have 
remained  to  the  Church  as  the  rich  fruit  of 
Rutherford's  long  exile  from  the  pulpit  have 
the  same  characteristic.  Open  the  volume 
where   you  will,  there  is  the  nanie  of  Christ. 


RUTHERFORD  ;     GILMOUR.  2O9 

Read  on  and  on,  the  writer  is  always  engaged 
in  a  vain  but  joyful  attempt  to  sum  up  the 
beauty  and  the  sweetness  of  Christ,  and  in 
an  equally  joyful,  but  less  vain,  attempt  to 
commend  the  beloved  Lord  to  the  reader, 
that  every  one  may  make  a  trial  of  the  inex- 
haustible riches,  for,  as  he  says,  "  Come  and 
see,  is  the  most  faithful  messenger  to  speak  of 
Him  ;  little  persuasion  would  avail  where  this 
were. 

Or,  to  quote  again  a  more  modern  saint, 
whose  words  have  already  been  before  us, 
James  Gilmour  of  Mongolia  has  produced  that 
singular  impression  upon  the  Church  which  is 
unique  even  among  the  many  remarkable  mis- 
sionaries of  our  day,  by  simply  adopting  an 
Imitatio  Christi  as  the  secret  of  his  life.  The 
avowed  purpose  of  this  man's  work  was  always 
to  be  like  Christ.  With  this  thought  he 
plunged  into  the  dreary  and  inhospitable  land, 
lived  in  the  comfortless  tent,  adopted  the  Mon- 
golian dress,  and  learned  the  unknown  speech. 
With  this  thought  he  stood  day  after  day  in 

1  Letter  xxxix. 


2IO  THE    LOGOS. 

the  bleak  market-place  of  the  town  dispensing 
medicines  and  dressing  loathsome  wounds,  to 
withdraw  in  the  evening  to  the  coarse  fare  and 
mean  lodging  of  a  Chinese  inn,  where  privacy 
was  impossible,  and  the  ordinary  amenities  of 
our  Western  life  were  unheard  of.  For,  as  he 
said  in  letters  written  towards  the  end  of  his 
life  three  years  ago,  "  I  have  learned  that  the 
source  of  much  blessing  is  just  to  go  to  Jesus 
and  tell  Him  what  you  need.  ...  No  one 
teaches  like  Him,  who  also  was  the  first  of 
preachers.  In  daily,  hourly,  humble  communi- 
cation with  Him  you  will  want  for  no  wisdom 
and  for  no  guidance  and  for  no  shepherding. 
Rejoice  in  that  you  have  Him  to  manage 
everything  for  you."  ^ 

Now  before  we  turn  to-day  to  consider  a  little 
more  closely  what  is  involved  in  this  assimila- 
tion of  the  Logos,  or  Word  of  God,  and  how 
true  preaching  will  consist  in  the  complete  ex- 
hibition of  this  assimilated  Word,  we  may 
stimulate  our  minds  to  the  inquiry  by  remem- 
bering that  this  is  the  secret  of  all  real  success 

'^  Life  of  James  Gihnoir?;  p.  262. 


THE  ONE  THING  NEEDFUL.        211 

in  the  Christian  ministry.  As  has  been  very 
beautifully  said :  — 

First  seek  thy  Saviour  out,  and  dwell 

Beneath  the  shadow  of  His  roof, 
Till  thou  have  scanned  His  features  well 

And  known  Him  for  the  Christ  by  proof; 
Such  proof  as  they  are  sure  to  find 

Who  spend  with  Him  their  happy  days. 
Clean  hands  and  a  self-ruHng  mind 

Ever  in  tune  for  love  and  praise. 
Then,  potent  with  the  spell  of  Heaven, 

Go,  and  thine  erring  brother  gain, 
Entice  him  home  to  be  forgiven. 

Till  he  too  see  his  Saviour  plain.^ 

It  is  said  that  David  Hume,  whom  we  are  not 
accustomed  to  think  of  as  very  susceptible  to 
the  message  of  the  preacher,  once  exclaimed 
on  hearing  John  Brown  of  Haddington,  "  That 
is  the  man  for  me  ;  he  means  what  he  says  ; 
he  speaks  as  if  Jesus  Christ  were  at  his  elbow." 
One  might  have  supposed  that  to  touch  David 
Hume  a  preacher  would  have  to  be  a  great 
metaphysician,     learned     in     what    was     then 

1  Christian  Vea?'.     St.  Andrew's  Day. 


212  THE    LOGOS. 

"  modern  thought,"  and  with  a  ready  armoury 
of  proofs  or  arguments  or  evidences.  But  it 
was  not  so.  The  most  forcible  arguments  would 
probably  have  been  turned  on  the  polished 
shield  and  breastplate  of  the  sceptical  philoso- 
phy. Appeals  to  the  feelings  would  have  been 
equally  vain ;  for  rationalism  counts  it  a  point 
of  honour  to  cover  all  the  human  emotions 
with  the  close  buckle  of  criticism.  But  a  man 
speaking  as  if  Jesus  Christ  were  at  his  elbow 
was  an  argument,  an  appeal,  which  the  great 
thinker  was  not  studious  to  rebut.  And  we 
may  say  without  undue  censoriousness  that 
the  rarity  of  preaching  which  possesses  this 
subtle  quality  accounts  to  a  large  extent  for  the 
prevailing  indifference  to  sermons. 

Now  suppose  a  preacher  is  convinced  that 
his  real  function  in  the  pulpit  is  to  set  forth 
Christ  in  His  fulness,  and  therefore  the  real 
preparation  for  his  work  must  be  the  recep- 
tion of  Christ  in  his  own  person,  he  will  very 
naturally  put  to  himself  the  question  from 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  and  keep  it 
before  him  from  week   to  week    all    through. 


STUDY    OF    CHRIST.  21^ 


In  what  sense,  by  what  means,  can  I  assimilate 
Christ?  What  course  must  I  adopt  that  the 
process  may  be  fairly  begun,  and  that,  once 
begun,  it  may  continue  in  a  normal  progress, 
and  attain  the  measure  of  completeness  which 
is  for  me  possible  ? 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  methods 
mentioned  in  the  last  lecture  are  those  which 
must  be  employed.  We  must  now  therefore 
review  those  three  modes  of  receiving  the 
Word  of  God  in  the  light  of  that  more 
specific  conception  of  the  Word  which  is  now 
occupying  our  attention. 

I.  Study.  There  are  few  ministers  who  do 
not  sooner  or  later  make  the  discovery  that, 
as  study  is  an  essential  condition,  so  it  is  one 
of  the  chief  snares,  of  their  work.  We  are 
tempted,  like  Bacon  in  his  youth,  to  take  "  all 
knowledge  for  our  province ; "  and  rightly 
judging  that  all  truths  and  facts  are  of  mo- 
ment to  the  preacher,  we  range  at  large  as 
fancy  may  dictate  in  the  boundless  fields 
of  literature.  We  hardly  realise  how  neces- 
sarily limited   the   time   for  study   is,   or  how 


214  THE    LOGOS. 

impossible  it  is  for  any  one  of  us  to  trace 
out  the  whole  circle  of  human  knowledge. 
Possibly  we  accept  the  maxim  referred  to  in 
the  last  lecture,  that  we  should  seek  to  know 
a  little  of  everything  and  all  about  something, 
and  by  the  natural  drift  of  a  mind  not  con- 
sciously disciplined  we  take,  as  the  subject 
on  which  we  are  to  specialise,  some  branch 
of  theology,  possibly  some  field  of  science, 
philosophy,  or  history,  it  may  be  some  depart- 
ment of  literature,  poetry,  art,  or  even  fiction. 
Almost  unknown  to  himself,  and  perhaps  with 
the  tacit  approval  of  his  people,  who  are  more 
bent  on  amusement  or  instruction  than  on 
treading  the  upward  Way,  the  minister  finds 
that  while  he  studies  enough  of  his  Bible 
or  his  commentaries  to  prepare  his  weekly 
tale  of  sermons,  the  subject  on  which  he  is  an 
authority,  the  subject  which  claims  his  best 
powers  and  the  largest  share  of  his  scanty 
time  is  one  of  these  self-chosen  byways  of 
study.  Yes,  byways  they  are  for  him,  how- 
ever interesting  and  valuable  they  may  be  in 
themselves    and    for     others  —  mere     byways 


THE    PREACHERS    BUSINESS.  215 

which  divert  him  from  his  journey  and  pre- 
vent him  from  reaching  his  goal ;  for  the 
only  subject  which  should  occupy  this  supreme 
place  in  the  preacher's  mind  —  the  only  sub- 
ject on  which  he  is  committed  to  know  every- 
thing, everything  that  is  possible,  or,  let  us 
say,  possible  for  him,  is  Christ.  There  is 
the  main  and  fair  theme  of  his  study.  Let 
him  by  all  means  know  a  little  of  everything 
if  he  can,  and  as  much  of  a  few  chosen  sub- 
jects as  he  may  without  injury  to  the  great 
purpose  of  his  life.  But  he  has  in  Christ 
a  field  of  thought  and  study  w^hich  will  not 
leave  him  much  leisure  for  other  tillage.  He 
has  to  learn  a  lesson  which  starts  with  a  sim- 
ple alphabet,  but  ends  in  a  lore  never  yet 
fathomed.  He  has  to  know  something  which 
is  most  fitly  defined  by  saying  that  "  it  passeth 
knowledge." 

The  main  cause  of  failure  in  the  ministry,  I 
would  suggest,  is  simply  this,  that  the  man  has 
neglected  his  chief  business ;  he  may  be  far 
from  indolent,  and  even  very  busy  —  yes,  use- 
fully busy  —  but  not  at  his  own  business.     We 


2l6  THE    LOGOS. 

do  not  employ  an  architect  because,  neglecting 
the  weary  details,  specifications,  and  quantities, 
construction,  arrangement,  and  sanitation,  he 
spends  his  days  in  sculpturing  marble  and 
earning  a  reputation  as  a  sculptor.  We  do 
not  employ  a  doctor  because,  leaving  thera- 
peutics and  pharmacy,  he  follows  eagerly  the 
path  of  a  chemist  or  a  botanist  and  becomes 
a  great  authority  on  one  of  these  subjects. 
Neither  does  the  church  in  the  long  run  want 
a  minister  who  leaves  the  Word  of  God,  Christ 
Jesus,  and  ceases  to  study  Him,  to  grow  in  the 
grace  and  the  knowledge  of  Him,  to  set  forth 
His  large  completeness  and  sufficiency,  in  order 
to  become  an  authority,  however  proficient,  on 
some  alien,  although  related,  subject.  To  be  a 
specialist  even  in  theology  is  of  no  avail  for 
the  purpose  of  the  ministry.  Archaeology, 
textual  criticism,  other  criticism,  are  interest- 
ing enough  if  they  contribute  their  lights  to 
the  great  subject  which  has  to  be  illustrated. 
But  men  would  see  Jesus,  and  they  rightly 
apprehend  that  the  minister's  peculiar  function 
is  to  show  Him  to  them.     They  will  pardon 


THE    LITERATURE    OF    CHRIST.  21 7 

his  ignorance  of  other  things,  for  we  do  not 
expect  omniscience  even  in  a  student  fresh 
from  college.  But  they  will  not  pardon  igno- 
rance of  the  one  thing.  If  they  find  they 
know  more  of  Christ  than  he  does,  or  even  as 
much ;  if  they  perceive  in  his  discourse  that 
they  are  entertained,  dazzled,  thrilled,  but 
kept  always  at  the  gate  of  the  speaker's  per- 
sonality, and  never  admitted  through  to  Christ, 
they  will  turn  away  dissatisfied.  Is  Christ 
lifted  up  ?  Is  He  evidently  set  forth  before 
their  eyes  ?  Are  they  sent  away  ravished 
with  the  thought  of  Him,  drawn  to  Him,  filled 
with  Him  ?  Then  they  will  be  very  lenient  to 
the  preacher  who,  though  not  learned  or  elo- 
quent or  attractive,  had  submitted  his  body  as 
a  whole-offering  to  God  for  the  manifestation 
of  Christ  to  the  people. 

The  literature  of  Christ  is  by  no  means  the 
only  thing  in  the  study  of  Christ.  It  is  no 
doubt  very  rich.  There  is  the  Bible,  i.e.,  the 
collection  of  those  writings  which  "speak  of 
Him,"  up  to  the  end  of  the  first  century  after 
His  death.     There  is   another    Bible,   not  yet 


2l8  THE    LOGOS. 

put  into  a  Canon,  but  dispersed  abroad  among 
the  devotional  literature  of  the  world. 

In  that,  as  yet  unformed,  Canon,  we  should 
all  put  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Samuel  Rutherford, 
a  good  deal  from  George  Fox  and  many  others 
of  the  Quakers;  and  between  the  three  outer 
points  of  Catholicism,  Presbyterianism,  and 
Quakerism  lie  innumerable  grades  of  Christ- 
literature  ;  for  all  sections  of  the  Church  have 
contributed.  It  is  that  uncollected  Canon, 
including  especially  the  grand  Psalter  of  Chris- 
tian Hymnology,  that  holds  us  all  together  in 
the  truest  catholicity.  This  second  Bible  is 
read  in  all  churches,  though  not  authorised  by 
your  Government  or  ours.  Every  writing  in 
it  has  this  one  note  —  it  teaches  the  reader 
more  about  Jesus.  Nothing  is  included  in  the 
collection  which  does  not  serve  to  reveal  His 
power.  His  love.  His  unique  greatness.  I  am 
told  that  Unitarians,  like  Channing,  have  con- 
tributed to  this  Bible ;  some  of  its  writers  have 
been  as  far  from  orthodoxy  as  the  writer  of 
Ecclesiastes  was  in  the  older  Bible.  But  there 
the    Book  stands,  the  great   Christ-book;   and 


THE    LITERATURE    OF    CHRIST.  2I9 

the  preacher  should  read  in  it  and  meditate  on 
it  day  and  night.  He  should  constantly  cleanse 
and  renew  the  very  roots  of  his  own  spiritual 
experience  in  that  vast  and  tuneful  fellowship, 
for  it  is  precisely  when  ''  we  have  fellowship 
one  with  another  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  He  should  con- 
sider those  heights  of  Christly  living  which 
others  have  attained  —  those  aerial  paths  over 
the  mountain  ridges  which  he  has  not  yet 
trodden.  Henry  Martyn  reads  in  the  Christ- 
book  the  life  of  Brainerd,  and  girds  up  his  own 
loins  and  turns  towards  the  starry  track ; 
Coleridge  Patteson  reads  the  life  of  Martyn, 
and  his  resolution  is  taken  to  seek  the  martyr's 
palm  in  the  glowing  seas  and  savage  heathen- 
ism of  the  Pacific.  The  man  of  God  who 
would  rise  to  the  stature  of  Christ  must  study 
all  the  applications  of  His  wonderful  teaching 
with  the  fixed  conviction  that  not  one  of  those 
Divine  laws  is  a  counsel  of  perfection,  except 
in  the  sense  that  he  too  may,  and  must,  be 
perfect.  He  must  trace  the  true  outlines  of 
that  Divine  Person,  and  look  into  that  wonder- 


2  20  THE    LOGOS. 

f ul  face  until  its  lineaments  are  clear ;  he  must 
well  observe  every  action  of  that  life  until  the 
Imago  Christi  illuminates  every  sphere  of  con- 
duct and  reveals  clearly  what  we  to-day  are 
meant  to  be.  No  man  who  leaves  Christ  as  a 
forgotten  frontispiece  at  the  beginning  of  his 
ministry,  or  as  an  antique  picture  hung  in  the 
dark  corner  of  his  study,  can  ever  really 
preach ;  but  the  real  preacher  will  be  a  man 
who  is  always  throwing  aside  other  pursuits 
and  diverging  from  other  ways,  foregoing  other 
friendships,  averting  his  eyes  from  other  faces, 
because  he  finds  increasingly  that  the  Christ- 
literature  demands  all  his  strength,  that  the 
portrait  of  the  Four  Evangelists  grows  and 
lives  and  moves  beside  him,  that  all  men  have 
been  trying  to  look  into  those  marvellous  eyes, 
and  that  a  day  or  a  month  or  a  year  spent  in 
winning  one  clear  sweet  glance  or  smile  from 
His  countenance  is  better  spent  than  if  one 
had  attained  the  knowledge  of  an  encyclo- 
paedist or  the  mental  agility  of  a  Hegelian. 

2.    Meditation.     But  what  has  just  been  said 
brings  us  over  into  the  method  of  meditation. 


MEDITATION    ON    CHRIST.  221 


If  one  were  asked  to  account  for  the  amazing 
vitality  of  the  Church  which  claims  for  itself 
the  specific  title  of  Catholic  —  a  vitality  which 
has  enabled  it  hitherto  to  face  all  changes  and 
to  possess  all  continents,  adapting  itself  as 
readily  to  your  democracy  as  it  did  to  the 
aristocracies  of  the  Old  World  —  the  readiest 
explanation  would  not  be  that  which  a  Roman 
divine  might  give.  The  hierarchy,  the  sacra- 
ments, the  fascinating  ritual,  might  offer  some 
explanation  of  her  cheap  and  worthless  vic- 
tories, her  ascendency  over  weak,  or  ignorant, 
or  indolent  minds.  But  that  which  has  secured 
her  noble  and  eternal  victories  has  been  the 
continual  maintenance,  from  the  first  age  to 
the  present,  of  the  habit  of  meditation  on  the 
person  of  Christ.  She  has  always  had  her 
mystics  and  her  saints,  men  and  women  who 
turned  aside  from  the  crowded  ways  to  con- 
template in  tearful  wonder  or  rapturous  adora- 
tion the  Saviour  Crucified.  She  has  never 
made  the  mistake  which  the  vigorous  and 
self-reliant  spirit  of  Protestantism  constantly 
makes;    she    never   regarded    mysticism    as    a 


22  2  THE    LOGOS. 

term  of  reproach.  Tauler  and  Madame  Guyon 
were  in  some  respects  more  at  home  in  Cathol- 
icism than  they  could  have  been  in  any 
Protestant  denomination ;  and  unless  Protes- 
tantism repents  we  shall  find  many  souls  turn- 
ing back  to  the  cloister  and  the  cell,  for  the 
calm  of  contemplation  and  the  quiet  insight 
into  realities,  which  the  loud  roar  of  the  mart 
and  the  defilino-  lust  of  oold  are  makins^  diffi- 
cult  in  English-speaking  communities. 

There  is  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Croce  at 
Florence  a  little  chapel  to  which  we  should  do 
well  to  make  our  way,  past  all  the  pompous 
monuments  of  the  great  dead  which  occupy 
the  nave.  On  the  northern  wall  of  the  chapel 
Giotto  has  painted  with  perfect  naivete  and 
veracity  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  death-bed 
of  St.  Francis.  By  the  lowly  couch  there  are 
eleven  brothers  of  the  Order  gazing  at  him,  the 
twelfth.  They  are  all  in  attitudes  of  reverence 
and  adoration,  and  the  faces  which  are  turned 
towards  the  spectator  are  not  stained  with 
tears,  but  illuminated  with  smiles.  The  lips  of 
four  are  bent  down  to  kiss  the  stiginata  in  the 


STo    FRANCIS.  223 

hands  and  feet.  One,  a  dignitary  with  a  biretta 
and  an  ermine  tippet,  is  irreverently  thrusting 
his  hand  into  the  wound  in  the  side.  For 
Giotto  evidently  would  have  us  know  that  it  is 
not  necessarily  high  ecclesiastics  to  whom  we 
must  look  for  any  true  appreciation  of  "  the 
marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  Here  is  the  best 
belief  of  the  thirteenth  century,  expressed  with 
all  simplicity,  that  one  man,  brother  Francis, 
had  literally  meditated  upon  his  Lord  until  the 
very  wounds  of  Christ  were  stamped  on  feet 
and  hands  and  side.  I  need  not  pause  to  point 
out  how  hypnotism  has  in  quite  recent  days 
explained  that  the  mysterious  stigmata  are  by  no 
means  incredible.  A  constant  mental  occupa- 
tion with  the  idea  of  the  crucifixion,  and  a  living 
faith  that  one  was  identified  with  Christ,  cruci- 
fied and  pierced  with  Him,  might  very  well  pro- 
duce these  physical  signs.  But  it  means  that 
this  man  who  exercised  the  greatest,  the  deepest, 
and  on  the  whole,  for  two  centuries  at  least,  the 
most  beneficial  influence  that  any  one  exerted 
on  mediaeval  life  and  thought,  had  acquired 
this  unsought  and  even  undesired  power  simply 


2  24  THE    LOGOS. 

by  a  peipetual  absorption  in  his  Saviour. 
Little  he  knew  of  books,  or  even  of  the  Bible. 
Intellectually  he  was  not  distinguished  even  in 
an  unintellectual  age.  But  he  had  sought  his 
Saviour  out  and  dwelt  "  beneath  the  shadow 
of  His  roof,"  and  by  the  intimate  passages 
between  him  and  his  Lord  he  had  obtained  a 
real  revelation  of  Him  which  broke  upon  his 
contemporaries  with  something  of  the  same 
astonishment,  admiration,  and  gratitude  which 
the  Incarnation  excited  in  the  first  believers. 

The  stigmata  which  may  be  marked  in  us 
are  not  of  the  nciif  and  carnal  kind  that  was 
appropriate  to  an  Italian  monk  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  A  whole-hearted  and  a  whole-minded 
comtemplation  of  Christ  would  not  lead  us  to 
a  picture  of  Perugino's,  with  the  Cross  clear 
cut  against  the  mellow  sky,  and  the  delicate 
cherubs  with  flying  scrolls  catching  the  blood 
from  the  nail-prints  in  golden  chalices ;  nor 
would  it  occupy  us  so  much  with  the  death, 
still  less  the  physical  sufferings,  of  our  Lord. 
It  would  lead  us  rather  to  a  rare  impression  of 
the  truth  and  beauty  of  His  earthly  life,  and  to 


ASSIMILATION    OF    CHRIST.  225 

a  rapturous  recognition  of  the  reality  of  His 
heavenly  reign.  But  this  may  be  safely  ad- 
vanced, that  the  personal  contact  with  Christ 
experienced  along  the  covert  path  of  medita- 
tion is  precisely  what  the  preacher  wants  in 
this  as  in  every  age. 

There  never  was  a  stronger  or  a  stranger 
image  used  by  a  religious  teacher  than  that 
command  which  the  Lord  gave  His  disciples  to 
eat  His  flesh  and  drink  His  blood.  Its  sienifi- 
cance  is  so  deep  and  so  exacting  that  we  can- 
not wonder  if  men  have  tried  to  evade  its 
searching  demands  by  eating  and  drinking  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  Sacrament  with  the 
robust  faith  that  this  is  what  He  meant.  But 
no  one  who  reads  the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  John 
would  for  a  moment  suppose  that  He  was 
speaking  of  anything  so  external,  so  material, 
or,  let  us  say  it  with  all  deference  to  those  who 
differ  from  us,  so  trivial  as  this.  It  is  evident 
that  the  figure  of  speech  must  be  interpreted  in 
a  spiritual  experience,  for  as  He  says,  "  It  is 
the  Spirit  that  quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing ;  the  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto 
you  are  spirit "  (vi.  63). 


2  26  THE    LOGOS. 

Here,  then,  is  a  profound  spiritual  demand 
that  the  Saviour  makes  upon  His  representa- 
tives. They  are  to  enter  into  the  very  taste 
and  nutriment  of  His  Incarnation  and  His  Sac- 
rifice. He  became  flesh,  and  the  body  was 
broken.  His  heavenly  life  was  poured  into 
the  vessel  of  an  earthly  life,  which  is  symbol- 
ised by  blood,  and  this  blood  was  shed  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  The  true  apostle  of  Christ 
is  he  who  has  so  absorbed  these  mysterious 
truths,  and  has  by  the  energy  of  faith  so  entered 
into  an  identification  with  the  Lord  who  became 
flesh  and  died,  that  his  soul  is  maintained  upon 
this  meat  precisely  as  the  Israelites  were  fed 
upon  the  manna  which  fell  daily  from  heaven. 

And  just  as  in  that  parabolic  miracle  the 
Lord  gave  the  bread  and  the  fishes  to  the  disci- 
ples that  they  might  minister  to  the  multitudes, 
and  the  scanty  store  was  increased  up  to  the 
level  of  the  need  and  beyond,  so  the  minister 
of  the  gospel  can,  with  the  apparently  small 
supplies  which  are  in  his  hand,  feed  all  the 
hungry  spirits  before  him  to  repletion,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  fulness  and  constancy  of  his  own 


MAKES    THE    PREACHER.  227 

receivinor  from  the  hands  of  his  Lord.  Men 
are  not  nurtured  on  idle  words,  nor  even  on 
eloquent  and  brilliant  words ;  they  turn  disap- 
pointed away  from  a  man  who  simply  dis- 
courses ably  about  the  things  of  God.  But 
when  the  preacher  has,  in  long  and  satisfying 
feasts  at  the  board  of  Christ,  received  and 
assimilated  the  very  Person  of  Christ,  until  his 
flesh  and  spirit  are  penetrated  with  the  Divine 
Personality,  and  his  breath  is  sweet  with  the 
odour  of  Christ,  and  his  very  garments  smell 
of  that  fragrant  nard  and  cassia,  the  hearers 
receive  a  food  —  a  food  to  the  spirit — they 
also  from  the  hands  of  their  pastor  receive  the 
Bread  of  Life,  which  is  the  Incarnate  and  the 
self-offered  Word  of  God. 

It  is  when  the  voice  of  our  Beloved  is  sound- 
ing in  our  hearts  like  the  thrilling  music  of 
birds  among  the  budding  quicks,  and  the  sense 
of  His  life  in  us  is  as  the  turning  of  the  fresh 
earth  and  the  teeming  activity  of  its  vernal 
bosom,  that  our  speech  becomes  expressive  and 
vital,  convincing  and  redemptive ;  we  very  lit- 
erally "  hold  forth  the  word  of  life." 


2  28  THE    LOGOS. 

3.  Prayer,  We  are  so  accustomed  to  think 
of  prayer  as  an  utterance  to  God  that  we  some- 
times overlook  the  other  side  of  it.  But  Chris- 
tian prayer  is  as  much  an  utterance  from  God, 
for  the  Spirit  within  makes  the  intercession, 
the  voice  of  God  speaks  through  the  soul  like 
the  wind  in  the  strings  of  a  harp.  A  true 
preacher  must  be  much  in  secret  prayer,  and 
in  prayer  of  a  specific  kind,  viz.,  prayer  in  the 
name  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  enough  that  he 
should  wrestle  with  his  doubts,  as  John  Foster 
did  —  marking  a  little  track  in  the  aisle  of  his 
chapel,  where,  through  the  long  nights,  he 
paced  backwards  and  forwards  in  spiritual  ex- 
ercise, and  gradually  declared  victory.  While 
prayer  is  only  a  conflict  with  doubt,  or  even  a 
resistance  to  the  enemy,  while  it  is  a  toilsome 
climb  up  a  narrow  steep  to  heights  that  have 
not  been  sighted,  it  may  be  very  necessary, 
very  useful,  and  even  very  helpful  to  the 
preacher  who  has  to  address  souls  in  doubt, 
but  it  is  not  yet  prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
To  pray  in  His  name  means  to  occupy  His 
standpoint  in  prayer,  to  pray  with  His  convic- 


PRAYER    IN    THE    NAME    OF    CHRIST.  2^9 

tions,  with  His  assurance,  with  His  results.  It 
is  therefore  the  outcome  of  an  identification 
with  Him,  when  the  soul,  passing  the  foam- 
drenched  headlands,  and  crossing  the  bar,  lies 
in  the  still  haven  of  the  Lord's  own  serene 
consciousness  with  the  Father.  The  Father 
always  heareth  Him.  The  Father  always 
hears  those  who  thus  stand  in  Him,  enveloped 
in  His  personality,  filled  with  His  Spirit,  and 
pray.  Prayer  was  the  breath  that  the  Son 
breathed  on  earth,  and  he  who  Is  In  Christ,  and 
is  assimilating  Christ,  breathes  the  same  atmos- 
phere ;  his  bosom  rises  and  falls  with  the  same 
rhythmic  movement. 

Perhaps  this  is  a  not  inappropriate  place  to 
observe  that  a  true  minister  bent  on  minister- 
ing the  word  of  life  will  bestow  as  much  pains 
on  the  prayers  In  which  he  leads  the  devotions 
of  his  people  as  on  the  discourses  In  which  he 
tries  to  teach  them.  The  peculiar  danger  of 
using  a  liturgy  Is  that  it  relieves  the  officiating 
minister  from  any  responsibility  in  this  devo- 
tional leadership.  A  good  voice  and  a  sincere 
heart   are    all    that   is  wanted.     A    danger   of 


230  THE    LOGOS. 

another  kind  besets  the  use  of  extemporary 
prayer  —  it  becomes  too  facile;  the  most 
exalted  utterances  are  learnt  and  crystallised, 
and  used  like  flowers  and  fruits  which  have 
been  turned  into  stone  in  a  cave  of  stalagmite ; 
any  intelligent  person  can  without  difficulty 
make  and  utter  the  most  eloquent  and  stirring 
prayer  in  public,  for  he  can  use  the  language 
of  Scripture  —  and  the  Psalms  and  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul  contain  the  utmost  perfection  of 
prayer-forms  that  human  lips  have  ever  de- 
vised. It  never  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that 
the  contention  between  liturgical  and  extem- 
porary prayer  is  worth  maintaining.  The  real 
distinction  is  between  prayer  in  the  name  of 
Jesus,  as  we  have  just  been  considering  it,  and 
prayer  in  our  own  name. 

The  duty  of  the  Christian  minister  is  to 
bring  his  people  in  each  service  to  that  moun- 
tain-top where  Jesus  retires  to  pray.  No  man 
can  do  that  who  has  not  been  there  himself 
and  learnt  all  the  footpaths  up  the  hill.  In 
vain  shall  we  expect  to  pray  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  on  Sunday  unless  we  have  been  praying 


LITURGICAL    OR    EXTEMPORARY?  23I 

in  His  name  all  the  week.  No  dress  sits 
easily  when  it  is  new  —  and  Sunday  clothes, 
which  seem  by  prescription  to  be  permissible 
in  the  pews,  are  useless  in  the  pulpit.  You 
must  stand  up  to  preach  and  pray  in  your 
weekday  clothes ;  and  therefore  the  weekday 
coat  must  be,  prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
Only  so  can  any  man  touch  the  multitudinous 
wants  w^hich  the  people  feel,  or  ought  to  feel. 
Only  so  can  he  exhibit  the  confidence  of 
prayer  and  the  complete  certainty  that  every 
petition  is  heard.  Only  so  can  he  show,  w^hat 
is  indeed  the  fact,  that  all  real  prayer  is  the 
operation  of  God  in  the  soul,  the  preliminary 
process  by  which  He  carries  out  His  great 
spiritual  purposes.  In  one  sense  no  man  ever 
prays  for  God,  for  when  he  prays  God  is 
already  there. 

Now  no  one  can  deny  that  a  minister  is  ex- 
posed to  a  constant  danger  and  temptation.  He 
is  peculiarly  likely  to  lose  "  the  grace  of  devo- 
tion." The  necessity  of  often  uttering  prayers 
—  even  when  his  heart  is  prayerless  —  brushes 
off  the  fine  bloom   of  prayer.     The  constant 


232  THE    LOGOS. 

use  of  the  name  Jesus  wears  away  the  signifi- 
cance and  the  need  of  praying  "  in  the  name 
of  Jesus."  I  am  inchned  to  think  that  every 
professional  minister  who  at  the  end  of  ten 
years  is  spiritually  alive,  and  keenly  sensitive 
to  the  things  of  God,  should  be  regarded  as  a 
miracle  of  grace.  Life  is  very  short,  and  when 
so  much  of  our  time  must  be  occupied  in  pub- 
lic prayer  we  are  inclined  to  stint  private 
prayer.  The  regular  task  being  to  speak 
about  Jesus,  to  prove  the  veracity  of  the  gospel, 
and  to  expound  the  doctrines  of  our  several 
creeds  and  confessions,  we  do  not  piercingly 
feel  the  necessity  for  pressing  into  His  pres- 
ence, and  sitting  down  at  His  board,  for  hold- 
ing His  hand  and  undergoing  the  personal 
transformation  of  His  indwelling  life.  Some 
of  the  dullest  books  I  have  ever  read  have 
been  books  on  the  Person  of  Christ.  The 
most  exasperating  sermon  I  ever  heard  was 
one  from  an  Anglican  priest,  on  "  Jesus  wept." 
When  Christless  men  speak  of  Jesus,  and  when 
prayerless  men  lead  our  prayers,  we  tread  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  and  taste  the 
gall  of  bitterness. 


ASKESIS.  233 

My  young  brothers,  who  are  to  speak  God's 
word  to  this  generation,  you  have  a  task  before 
you  which  is  perhaps  more  arduous  than  you 
think.  Naturally  your  friends  wish  for  you 
much  prosperity  and  joy.  God  knows  better 
than  your  friends  —  it  is  not  in  that  way  we 
hear  the  word  of  God.  "  Devotion  is  not  to 
be  acquired  in  the  joyousness  of  feast  and 
festival,  but  in  sorrow  and  silence.  All  joy 
that  comes  not  from  God  passes  quickly  away, 
and  leaves  the  soul  stained  and  wounded."  ^ 
Prosperity  and  joy  are  the  bane  of  prophets 
and  of  apostles.  God  does  not  inflict  on  them 
that  bane.  The  true  argument  against  asceti- 
cism is  that  it  is  unnecessary ;  it  is  the  wilful 
adoption  of  a  discipline  which  God  carries  out 
better  in  His  own  way.  The  Askesis,  or  spir- 
itual gymnastic  of  the  man  of  God,  is  deter- 
mined by  the  very  conditions  of  his  work. 
He  has  to  receive  the  Word  of  God  for  him- 
self —  that  Word  in  its  fulness  is  a  suffering 
and  a  crucified  Saviour,  and  to  receive  Him 
must  mean  to  suffer  with  Him,  and  to  be  cruci- 

1  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Garden  of  Roses ^  p.  24. 


^34  THE    LOGOS. 

fied  with  Him.  Let  a  man  be  resolutely  set 
on  thus  receiving,  that  he  may  preach,  the  true 
Word  of  God,  and  he  will  find  himself  com- 
mitted to  a  way  which  is  more  laborious  and 
painful  than  the  hair-shirt  of  the  anchorite  or 
the  whip  of  the  Flagellant.  His  face  will  be 
anointed  with  joy,  and  deep  down  in  his  heart 
will  sing  the  quiet  waters  of  peace  that  flow 
from  God  and  to  God,  but  the  joy  and  the 
peace  will  be  of  the  kind  which  the  world 
would  call  sorrow  and  conflict.  For  the  path 
he  treads  is  the  way  of  study  and  meditation 
and  prayer — study  of  Christ,  the  Man  of  Sor- 
rows and  acquainted  with  grief,  meditation  on 
Christ  until  Christ  is  formed  within  him, 
prayer  in  Christ  until  the  wells  of  supplica- 
tion which  are  unsealed  in  the  closing  chapters 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  in  Gethsemane  and  on 
the  Cross,  are  rising  and  throbbing  in  him. 
Paul  with  his  thorn  in  the  flesh,  Robert  Hall 
with  his  life-long  excruciating  pains,  Robert- 
son with  the  constant  fret  and  strain  of  his 
life,  Spurgeon  with  his  constant  collapses  and 
premature    death,    are    but    illustrations    of   a 


ASKESIS.  235 

wide-reaching  law,  that  the  Word  of  God,  re- 
ceived by  a  man  for  God's  own  purposes,  is 
Hke  that  little  roll  which  in  the  mouth  was 
sweet,  but  within  was  bitter ;  for  the  heart  and 
the  flesh  cry  out,  and  the  inward  crucifixion  is 
not  achieved  in  a  day.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
utterance  as  the  reception  of  the  Word  which 
is  the  condition  of  utterance,  that  makes  the 
great  demand  upon  the  man's  endurance  and 
faithfulness. 


LECTURE   VIII. 


LECTURE    VIII. 


THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 


I  CANNOT  perhaps  more  fitly  pass  from  the 
subject  of  the  last  two  lectures,  the  reception 
of  the  Word  of  God,  to  the  subject  of  the 
present  lecture,  the  personality  of  the  preacher, 
than  by  quoting  a  verse  from  one  of  the 
noblest  examples  of  a  true  pastor  that  our 
English  race  has  ever  possessed,  George  Her- 
bert ;  he  says  — 

The  holy  men  of  God  such  vessels  are 
As  serve  Him  up,  who  all  the  world  commands. 
When  God  vouchsafeth  to  become  our  fare, 
Their  hands  convey  Him  who  conveys  their  hands. 
O  what  pure  things,  most  pure  must  those  things  be 

Who  bring  my  God  to  me  ! 

If  you   have  followed   me   in  what    has    been 
already  said,  you  will  not  be  detained  by  the 

239 


240  THE    preacher's    PERSONALITY. 

apparently  sacramentarian  suggestion  of  these 
lines ;  but  you  will  cordially  agree  with  the 
poet  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  minister  first  to 
receive,  and  afterwards  to  convey  to  others,  the 
very  being  and  essence  of  Him  who  is  the 
Word  of  God.  And  you  will  be  inclined  to 
lay  more  stress  on  the  need  that  the  hands  of 
such  ministrants  should  be  pure  than  he,  who 
by  the  Articles  of  his  Church  was  bound  to 
teach  that  evil  men  can  minister  the  Word  and 
Sacraments  without  the  effect  of  Christ's  ordi- 
nances being  taken  away/  I  have  certainly 
spoken  in  vain  unless  you  are  prepared  to  admit 
that  while  God  may  undoubtedly  speak  to  men 
in  many  ways,  and  without  any  human  interven- 
tion at  all,  He  will  not,  even  if  He  could,  use 
evil  men  to  be  the  ministrants  of  His  Word. 
Evil  men  may  serve  as  priests,  no  doubt.  Evil 
men  may  make  vigorous  and  loyal  ecclesiastics. 
But,  as  in  the  old  external  covenant  they  must 
be  pure  who  bear  the  vessels  of  the  Lord,  so 
in  the  spiritual  society  of  Christ  no  man  can 
see   God  unless  he  is   pure  in  heart,  and  no 

1  Article  XXVI.  of  the  Church  of  England. 


MUST    BE    PURE. 


241 


man  can  either  receive  or  deliver  the  Word  of 
God  unless  he  is  inwardly  cleansed,  his  un- 
clean lips  touched  with  a  purifying  coal,  and 
his  conduct  made  a  not  altogether  imperfect 
mirror  of  Him  whom  he  is  called  to  preach. 

The  truth  which  is  now  to  occupy  us  is 
this :  the  preacher's  own  life  and  character, 
completely  subdued  to  the  will  of  God,  and 
renewed  in  the  image  of  Christ,  must  be  the 
factor  which  gives  force  to  what  he  says,  and 
supplies  more  or  less  the  many  gaps  which 
must  remain  in  even  the  most  exhaustive  cur- 
riculum of  pulpit  instruction.  The  preacher 
must  himself  be  a  true  sermon,  to  adapt 
Milton's  noble  thought  about  every  poet  being 
himself  a  true  poem,  and  he  must  be  so  far 
better  than  any  sermon  he  can  preach,  that  he 
really  in  some  degree  expresses  the  sum  total 
of  all  his  sermons. 

It  is  always  to  me  exceedingly  impressive 
that  the  earliest  master  of  English  poetry, 
writing  in  a  period  of  great  ecclesiastical  cor- 
ruption, when  priests  and  friars  and  palmers 
and  nuns  had  won  an  evil  name,  not  only  for 


242      THE  PREACHER  S  PERSONALITY. 

themselves,  but  for  the  Church,  should  have 
thrown  all  his  power  into  the  description  of  a 
true  pastor.  The  Reformation  was  in  the  dis- 
tant future,  heralded  only  by  its  Morning  Star, 
and  the  principles  which  Wycliffe  advocated 
were  practically  accepted  only  by  the  perse- 
cuted Lollards,  w^hen  Chaucer  drew  his  undy- 
ing picture  of  the  faithful  minister,  and  asserted 
that  article  of  faith  in  relation  to  preaching 
which  I  wish  to  press  upon  your  attention 
to-day.  I  shall  venture  to  quote  Chaucer's 
verses  on  the  "poor  parson  of  a  town,"  simply 
turning  them  into  modern  English  so  far  as  to 
make  them  readily  intelligible. 

Wide  was  his  parish,  and  houses  far  asunder, 

But  he  ne  lafte  not  for  rain  ne  thunder, 

In  sickness  nor  in  mischief  to  visit 

The  farthest  in  his  parish,  much  and  Hte, 

Upon  his  feet  and  in  his  hand  a  staff. 

This  noble  ensample  to  his  sheep  he  yaf, 

That  first  he  wrought  and  afterward  he  taught ; 

Out  of  the  gospel  he  the  wordes  caught, 

And  this  figure  he  added  eke  thereto 

That  if  gold  ruste,  what  shall  iron  do  ? 


CHAUCER  S    PARSON.  243 

Well  ought  a  priest  ensample  for  to  yive 

By  his  cleanness,  how  that  his  sheep  should  live. 

The  poetry  of  a  nation  is  the  deepest  pulse  of 
its  Hfe ;  the  poets  who  attain  rank  among  the 
immortals  are  they  who  succeed  in  expressing 
the  truest  and  most  permanent  principles  of 
the  national  faith.  And  in  the  dawn  of  Ensf- 
lish  poetry  shines  this  lasting  truth,  sig- 
nificant for  America  as  for  England,  that 
English-speaking  men,  with  their  curious  dis- 
like of  lies,  and  their  persistent  admiration  of 
facts  as  such,  have  refused  to  believe  in  any 
prophet  of  God's  Word  who  does  not  exhibit 
it  in  his  life ;  while  they  have,  with  that  odd 
and  illogical  tolerance  w^hich  has  always  char- 
acterised them,  forgiven  almost  any  crudities 
of  doctrine  and  faults  of  natural  ability,  if  they 
perceive  in  the  minister  a  course  of  conduct 
and  a  type  of  character  which  are  in  harmony 
with  the  gospel  that  is  preached.  For,  "  first 
he  wrought  and  afterward  he  taught  "  —  that 
is  the  secret  of  every  successful  ministry  on 
English  soil  and  among  English-speaking  men. 
And    notwithstanding    the  appalling   responsi- 


244  THE    PREACHER  S    PERSONALITY. 

bilities  which  may  seem  to  prevent  a  preacher 
from  advocating  the  doctrine,  we  are  forced 
to  admit  that  in  this  point  at  any  rate  the 
EngHsh  view  is  thoroughly  Apostohc,  just 
as  the  idea  of  the  AngHcan  Church  on  the 
subject  is  thoroughly  Roman.  For  St.  Peter 
exhorts  the  presbyters,  or  ministers,  to  be 
themselves  "  ensamples  of  the  flock"  (i  Pet. 
V.  3).  And  St.  Paul  is  even  bolder,  entreating 
his  people  to  be  imitators  of  him,^  and  describ- 
ing the  result  of  his  preaching  as  the  produc- 
tion of  that  imitation.^ 

My  attention  was  called  some  time  ago  to  a 
clergyman  in  a  fashionable  English  watering- 
place,  who  not  only  practised,  but  even 
preached,  the  doctrine  that  the  people  were 
to  do  what  he  told  them  and  not  what  he 
did ;  his  conduct  was  openly  and  notoriously 
out  of  harmony  with  the  gospel,  but  he  fell 
back  on  the  Articles  of  his  Church,  and  en- 
couraged his  hearers  to  believe  that  the  grace 
of  the  Church  was  flowing  through  his  own 
eloquent    but    insincere    lips.     It    is    a  melan- 

1  I  Cor.  iv.  16,  xi.  i.  ^  1  Thess.  i.  6 


Popular  preachers.  245 

choly  illustration  of  the  degradation  which  is 
resultino^  in  Enorland  from  the  revival  of  a 
debased  ecclesiasticism,  that  this  church  was 
always  crowded  with  young  men  and  young 
women  who  were  only  too  glad  to  find  a 
doctrine  which  could  reconcile  a  certain  re- 
ligious profession  with  an  unmodified  worldli- 
ness.  If  our  English  race  is  to  be  saved 
and  to  accomplish  its  vast  destiny  for  the 
good  of  the  world,  it  must  revert  to  the 
teaching  of  its  earlier  seer,  Geoffrey  Chaucer ; 
it  must  demand  that  its  preachers  first  mani- 
fest the  gospel  in  their  life  and  conduct,  and 
then  expound  it  from  the  pulpit.  And  there- 
fore the  Schools  of  the  Prophets  must  be 
prepared  to  lead  the  way,  and  to  face  the 
exacting  necessity,  that  the  character  of  the 
minister  shall  be  a  fuller  exposition  of  his 
gospel  than  his  sermons. 

And  before  I  go  any  further,  let  me  utter 
my  protest  against  the  danger  of  popularity. 
Popular  preacher !  it  is  a  term  that  fills  one 
with  misgiving.  What  has  the  preacher  to  do 
with    popularity !      Is  it  not  enough   that   the 


246      THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

disciple  should  be  as  his  Lord?  Was  his 
Lord  a  popular  preacher?  Yes,  perhaps,  in 
the  sense  that  the  people  felt  compelled  to 
listen,  but  no,  certainly  no,  in  the  sense  that 
they  were  eased  and  pleased  with  what  they 
heard,  and  most  assuredly  no,  in  the  sense  that 
they  were  prepared  to  give  Him  a  high  social 
standing,  a  tribute  of  admiration  or  veneration, 
or  a  large  endowment  of  earthly  good.  Popu- 
lar the  Master  was  in  the  greatest  way.  He 
has  for  nearly  nineteen  centuries  drawn  men  to 
Himself,  and  His  brief  utterances  have  riveted 
the  attention  of  one  generation  after  another. 
But  the  popularity  of  this  noble  kind  was 
secured  by  a  method  and  a  preaching  which 
roused  all  the  orthodoxies  of  His  day  into 
bitter  opposition  and  led  to  His  crucifixion  at 
the  hands  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of 
His  nation.  This  is  the  only  popularity  which 
the  minister  of  Christ  should  covet  or  expect. 
That  grand  but  singular  petition  of  the  Mora- 
vian liturgy  should  always  be  upon  his  lips 
and  in  his  heart,  "  From  the  unhappy  desire 
of  becoming  great,  good  Lord,  deliver  me." 


BUSHNELL.  247 

But  it  is  time  for  us  to  grapple  a  little  more 
closely  with  this  question  of  Personal  Char- 
acter in  the  Preacher. 

Horace  Bushnell,  who  was  himself  a  fine 
instance  of  the  persecuted  popularity  found  in 
the  risfht  delivery  of  the  Word  of  God,  in  dis- 
cussing  the  necessary  talents  for  preaching, 
laid  down  one  condition  which  has  always 
struck  me  as  singularly  valuable :  the  preacher 
must  have  "  a  good  personal  atmosphere." 
"  It  was  not,"  says  Bushnell,  "  Jesus's  look,  nor 
His  declamation,  nor  His  fine  periods ;  not 
even  His  prodigious  weight  of  matter;  but  it 
was  the  sacred  exhalation  of  His  quality,  the 
aroma,  the  auroral  glory  of  His  person.  He 
took  the  human  person  to  exhale  an  atmos- 
phere of  God  that  should  fill  and  finally  renew 
creation,  bathing  all  climes  and  times  and  ages 
with  its  dateless  ineradicable  power,"  &c.  It 
might  seem  to  follow,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  one,  who  has  been  seeking  to  receive  the 
Word  of  God  in  the  methods  which  we  have 
been  considering,  would  by  the  very  process 
obtain  this  "good  personal  atmosphere;"  but 


248      THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

SO  subtle  are  the  inconsistencies  of  the  human 
mind,  and  so  unfortunately  possible  is  it  to 
combine  great  spiritual  sensibility  with  serious 
moral  defects,  that,  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact, 
some  of  the  most  eloquent,  and  apparently  in- 
spired, preachers  of  God's  Truth  have  been  a 
reproach  to  the  gospel  they  have  delivered. 
Declaring  the  necessity  of  unworldliness,  they 
have  themselves  been  ambitious,  avaricious, 
and  selfish.^  Preaching  the  duty  of  Love, 
they  have  been  suspicious,  malignant,  quarrel- 
some, and  uncharitable.  Expecting  others  to 
be  humble,  they  have  become  notable  examples 
of  vanity,  conceit,  self-esteem,  and  pride.  The 
only  hope  of  getting  good  from  their  preach- 
ing has  been  not  to  know  them,  and  even  that 
hope  has  generally  been  vain,  because  a  man 
can  hardly  preach  without  being  known. 
There    are,    there   have   always    been,     some 

^  As  Keble  says  of  Balaam  — 

"  Yet  in  the  Prophet's  soul  the  dreams  of  Avarice  stay. 
He  hears  the  Almighty's  word, 
He  sees  the  angePs  sword, 
Yet  low  upon  the  earth  his  heart  and  treasure  lie." 


CHARACTER.  249 

preachers  who  are  constantly  exercising  a 
o^reat  influence  on  those  who  never  hear 
them ;  there  are,  and  always  have  been,  others 
who  never  exercise  any  real  influence  on  those 
who  are  always  hearing  them.  The  first  very 
often  are  found  speaking  to  a  very  few,  and 
their  faithful  ministry  seems  to  open  a  foun- 
tain of  living  waters  in  the  heart  of  every 
hearer,  so  that  the  tiny  congregation  disperses 
week  by  week,  like  water-carriers  in  the  arid 
East,  bearing  their  draughts  of  refreshment 
and  inspiration  to  all  whom  they  meet.  The 
second  are  very  often  found  addressing  a 
crowd ;  the  genius,  the  eloquence,  the  power, 
are,  however,  so  mingled  with  egotism  and 
ostentation,  that  even  the  crowd,  though  at- 
tracted by  the  brilliant  gifts,  disperses  unedi- 
fied  and  unvivified,  while,  to  the  outsider,  who 
is  only  too  ready  to  deride,  the  w^hole  matter 
becomes  an  occasion  of  scorn  and  scepticism. 

The  difference  lies  wholly  in  character:  in 
the  one  case  the  hallowed  personality  is  a 
sweet  channel  through  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
flows  to  the  thirsty  souls  of  men,  in  the  other 


250      THE  PREACHERS  PERSONALITY. 

the  personality  for  all  its  great  attractions  is 
too  choked  with  its  resplendent  egotism  to  be 
a  channel  for  anything  but  itself.  We  never 
read  of  St.  John  addressing  great  audiences. 
The  only  sermon  of  his  that  is  recorded  is  a 
very  brief  one  which,  it  is  said,  he  used  to 
deliver  as  an  old  man  whenever  he  entered 
the  assembly  of  the  Church  at  Ephesus.  He 
would  spread  out  his  aged  hands  and  say  to 
the  people,  "  Little  children,  love  one  another." 
Yet  no  preacher  was  ever  so  successful  in 
receiving  and  delivering  the  Word  of  God  as 
St.  John.  Even  St.  Paul's  vehement  and 
copious  eloquence  has  not  gone  farther  than 
the  quiet,  penetrative  quality  which  breathes 
through  the  three  Johannine  Epistles.  It 
seems  to  be  a  consecrated  personality  speak- 
ing. There  is  no  rich  imagery;  there  is  no 
connected  argument ;  there  is,  strictly  speak- 
ing, no  logic ;  unsympathetic  readers  often 
turn  impatiently  away  from  this  group  of  the 
New  Testament  writings,  calling  it  mystical, 
dreamy,  unsubstantial.  But  there  is  no  ques- 
tion that  the  character  which  lies  behind  these 


ST.    JOHN.  251 

Epistles,  the  character  of  one  who,  having 
touched  and  handled  the  Word  of  Life,  had 
been  born  again  and  completely  transformed 
by  the  admission  of  this  Word  into  his  own 
being,  produces  an  effect  on  us  all  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  number  or  the  apparent 
cogency  of  the  words.  What  the  preacher  is 
determines  in  the  end  the  effect  of  what  he 
teaches. 

In  the  course  of  last  year  Dr.  Griffith  John, 
of  Hankow,  sent  home  a  detailed  account  of  a 
Chinaman,  named  Wang,  who  had  recently 
passed  away.  So  unprepossessing  was  the 
man's  countenance  that  even  the  charity  of 
the  missionary  hesitated  to  believe  the  early 
professions  of  faith.  But  under  the  converting 
power  of  the  gospel  he  became  not  only  a 
Christian,  but  a  teacher,  who  exercised  an 
extraordinary  influence  upon  the  Church  at 
Hankow,  and  afterwards  in  the  new  mission 
at  Chung  King.  The  singular  testimony  that 
the  native  Christians  gave  to  the  man  was, 
that  "  there  was  no  difference  between  him 
and    the    Book."     This   should   be  said   of    all 


252  THE    PREACHERS    PERSONALITY. 

preachers ;  and  where  it  can  be  said,  even  very 
plain  preaching  will  become  effectual;  it  is  not 
every  one  that  can  understand  a  sermon,  it  is 
not  every  sermon  that  can  be  understood ;  but 
every  one  can  understand  a  Christly  character, 
and  every  Christly  character  carries  conviction 
to  the  observer. 

We  are  coming,  then,  to  the  central  point  of 
the  present  lecture.  In  addition  to  those  great 
demands  which  preaching  makes  upon  the 
brain  and  the  spirit,  the  demands  of  study  and 
meditation  and  prayer  which  have  been  already 
examined,  there  is  this  demand,  greater  and 
more  important  than  all  the  rest,  that  the 
preacher's  inward  life  should  be  a  complete 
expression  of  the  Truth  that  he  has  to  deliver, 
and  that  his  outward  conduct  should  be  in 
harmony  with  the  faith  which  he  professes. 
He  may  not  shrink  from  using  the  Apostolic 
command,  nay,  his  ministry  must  be  a  failure 
unless  he  can  use  it,  "  Be  ye  imitators  of  me, 
even  as   I  also  am  of  Christ."^     He  is  as  one 

1  The  great  Gibbon  pronounces  a  remarkal^le  judgment  on 
William  Law,  who  had  been  a  private  chaplain  or  tutor  in  his 


STUDY    OF    FACTS.  253 

who  has  gone  into  a  country  of  bad  farming  to 
teach  the  farmers  better  methods,  and  the  first 
requirement  is  that  he  should  keep  a  model 
farm.  For  there  are  certain  alternations  of 
crops,  there  are  ways  of  draining  and  enrich- 
ing the  land,  there  are  breeds  of  cattle  and 
sheep  to  be  reared,  which  demand  some  faith 
from  ignorant  men.  Results  appear  only 
slowly — and  meanwhile  prospective  gain  in- 
volves present  loss.  It  will  be  useless  to  give 
fine  lectures  to  the  slow,  bucolic  men ;  they 
will  advance  against  the  bravest  theories  the 
bad  but  dear  customs  of  their  ancestors.  To 
them  the  new  has  the  appearance  of  the 
vicious,  and  the  old  is  in  their  minds  another 
name  for  the  good.  But  if  their  agricultural 
missionary,  working  in  soil  like  their  own,  and 
under  the  same  skies,  using  no  implements 
which  they  cannot  obtain,  and  sowing  no  seeds 
which  are  not  within  their  knowledge,  presents 

father"'s  house.  "In  our  family  William  Law  left  the  reputation 
of  a  worthy  and  pious  man,  who  believed  all  that  he  professed 
and  practised  all  that  he  enjoined.'"  (Gibbon's  Memoirs  of  fjiy 
Life  and  Writings.^ 


254      THE  PREACHERS  PERSONALITY. 

a  farm  that  yields  better  and  more  regular 
crops,  that  does  not  fail  in  bad  seasons,  but 
can  in  a  sense  defy  the  chances  of  outrageous 
fortune,  they  will  yield  docile  ears,  and  will, 
however  sheepishly,  carry  out  in  practice  what 
in  argument  they  would  never  admit.  The 
preacher  is  "  God's  husbandry."  He  must 
watch  his  own  estate.  A  fault  in  another 
man's  property  must  send  him  back  to  his  own 
to  see  how  it  stands  in  that  respect  before  he 
says  a  word.  A  new  method  must  be  tested 
on  his  own  land  before  he  suggests  it  to  the 
rest.  If  he  ever  ventures  to  pass  beyond  an 
actual  experience  and  to  speak  upon  the  good 
harvest  which  will  follow  from  a  certain  harrow- 
ing and  purging  of  the  land  and  the  use  of  a 
certain  seed,  he  must  have  done  the  work 
first  and  put  in  the  seed,  and  be  in  the  quiet 
expectation  of  the  crop  before  he  speaks. 

To  be  specific,  it  is  vain  to  preach  any 
sermons  at  all,  unless,  as  St.  Paul  says,  the 
preacher  has  love  in  his  heart  —  love  to  God, 
love  to  men.  If  frankly  he  finds  he  cannot 
love,  is  too  cold  and  callous,  or  perhaps    too 


THE    NEED    OF    LOVE.  255 

soured,  embittered,  and  cynical,  let  him  come 
down  from  the  pulpit,  and  go  to  the  Cross, 
and  see  if  his  bitter-thoughted  heart  can  there 
be  sweetened.  If  not,  he  had  best  not  enter 
his  pulpit  again. 

Buddha,  we  are  told,  once  met  a  monster, 
raging  terribly,  shaking  the  hills  and  forests 
with  his  voice.  The  monster  approached  to 
tear  him  in  pieces,  but  he  looked  up  and  said, 
"  Poor  friend,  I  love  even  thee."  As  he  spoke 
the  monster  shrank  and  became  a  dove  which 
circled  round  his  head,  singing,  "Hate  hath  no 
harm  for  love,  and  love  unarmed  is  master  of 
every  evil."  There  is  a  monster  ready  to 
destroy  every  preacher  who  cannot  disarm  and 
transform  it  by  love.  It  is  useless,  strange  as 
it  sounds,  to  speak  the  Truth,  yes,  even  The 
Truth,  unless  we  can  speak  it  in  love.  I  have 
heard  of  preachers  whom  little  children  dread ; 
young  people  cannot  take  their  troubles  to 
them ;  weary  and  world-worn  men  are  repelled 
by  their  glittering  intellects  and  barren  assev- 
erations of  truth.  These  should  be  in  the 
philosopher's  chair,  not  in  the  Christian  pulpit. 


256      THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

God  is  love,  and  therefore  a  word  of  God  which 
is  not  aglow  with  love  does  not  proceed  imme- 
diately from  God,  and  will  certainly  fall  useless 
to  the  ground. 

Or  does  it  seem  a  hard  saying  that  a  man 
had  better  not  preach  if  he  has  not  joy? 
Indeed  the  joy  of  the  Lord  is  the  preacher's 
strength.  "  Always  rejoicing "  is  among  the 
articles  of  his  perpetual  equipment.  If  a  man 
preaches  God's  Word,  as  if  he  felt,  to  use  the 
old  English  expression,  that  he  has  to  "  dree 
his  weird ; "  if  his  countenance  is  dark  with 
perplexity,  and  his  eyes  shadowed  with  doubt, 
God's  Word  itself  will  become  phantasmal,  the 
hollow  echo  of  a  voice  that  is  still. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  details 
any  further.  For  the  character  of  the  preacher 
is  described,  and  the  mode  of  its  production  is 
suggested  in  that  nine-fold  fruit  of  the  Spirit 
which  is  mentioned  in  Gal.  v.  22.  That  fruit 
{KapTTo^  Tov  TlpevfiaTof;)  is  one  fair  and  comely 
growth,  a  fruit  of  rich  pulp,  sweet  flavour, 
downy  skin,  strong  stalk,  and  productive  core, 
pleasant  to  the  senses,  lovely  in  its  complete- 


THE    FRUIT    OF    THE    SPIRIT.  257 

ness.  Love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  benev- 
olence, beneficence,  faithfulness,  gentleness, 
self-restraint, — that  is,  a  complete  Christian 
character;  this  harmonious  character  must  be 
possessed  and  presented  by  every  one  who 
would  rightly  declare  the  Word  of  God.  Nor 
must  we  suppose  that  these  qualities  are,  like 
the  charismata  of  the  Spirit,  distributed  among 
God's  saints,  as  though  each  should  have  one, 
but  none  must  expect  more  —  as  if  love  were 
to  be  held  as  a  compensation  for  the  want  of 
self-restraint,  benevolence  for  the  want  of 
beneficence,  faithfulness  for  the  want  of  gentle- 
ness, long-suffering  for  the  want  of  peace.  No, 
they  are  all  qualities  subtilly  combined  in  the 
harmony  of  the  one  fruit;  and  the  mode  of 
their  production  is  given  when  the  fruit  is 
called  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit.  Indeed,  when  the 
preacher  seeks,  as  he  should  seek,  for  the  en- 
duement  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power,  or  for  the 
illumination  of  the  Spirit  for  wisdom  and  truth, 
let  him  realise  that  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  must 
be  in  his  life  before  either  wisdom  or  power 
can  be  in  his  ministry.     The  Christian    char- 


258  THE    preacher's    PERSONALITY. 

acter  is  the  first  and  Indispensable  charisma  of 
the  Spirit,  the  Christian  character  in  its  com- 
pleteness. A  man  must  be  complete  in  Christ 
before  he  can  preach  Christ ;  for  all  he  says  is 
necessarily  interpreted  by  what  he  is.  I  dare 
not  use  the  English  word  which  is  now  unhap- 
pily steeped  in  misleading  associations.  But 
the  preacher  must  be  what  St.  Paul  would  call 
teleios}  The  new  man  in  the  imao^e  of  Christ 
must  be  formed  in  him,  formed,  though  still 
growing.  And  the  ground  of  this  necessity 
lies  not  only  in  his  own  need,  but  also  in  the 
familiar  fact  that  actions  speak  louder  than 
words.  If,  for  example,  to  take  the  most 
trifling  example,  a  minister  has  not  control  of 
his  temper,  but  betrays  irritation  and  annoy- 
ance, or  breaks  out  into  strong  and  unjust 
expressions,  —  venial  as  bad  temper  may  seem 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  —  his  preaching  is  all 
discredited.  That  unhappy  conflagration  has 
spread  a  broad  patch  of  charred  land  between 
him  and  his  congregation,  which  will  not  be 
covered  with  green  shoots  again  for  a  season 

^  I  Cor.  ii.  6 ;  Phil.  iii.  i^. 


HOLINESS.  259 

or  two.  Yet  no  one  has  discovered  the  secret 
of  complete  self-control  except  in  the  whole- 
hearted surrender  of  the  will  to  God  and  in  the 
fulness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  personal  and 
continuous  inward  experience. 

But  in  dwelling  thus  upon  the  requirement 
of  character,  and  showing  the  need  that  the 
preacher  should  be  in  a  position  boldly  to  ap- 
pear as  an  ensample  to  his  flock,  we  are  met  by 
an  objection  and  a  genuine  difficulty  which 
seems  to  be  involved  in  the  life  of  holiness. 
Surely,  it  may  be  said,  if  any  minister  takes 
the  ground  that  has  just  been  recommended, 
he  will  become  intensely  self-conscious,  and 
his  preaching  will  be  attended  with  a  spiritual 
pride,  w^^iich,  however  decently  veiled,  must 
soon  be  an  offence  and  a  loathine  to  his 
hearers ;  granted  that  he  has  laid  aside  many 
or  most  of  the  common  faults  to  w^hich  men 
are  liable,  what  are  they  all  in  comparison 
with  this  colossal  spectre  of  Egotism  which 
has  been  conjured  up  before  our  eyes  ?  The 
objection  is  so  plausible  that  it  has  probably 
operated   more   than  any   other  cause  in  pre- 


26o  THE    preacher's    PERSONALITY. 

venting  Christian  ministers  from  resolutely 
and  earnestly  taking  the  place  to  which  they 
were  called,  when  their  Master  said  that  they 
were  to  be  in  the  world,  witnesses  of  Him  in 
their  own  person.  For  it  is  always  easier  to 
lay  claim  to  a  sacerdotal  authority  which  rests 
only  on  office  and  orders  than  to  that  Divine 
Authority  which  springs  out  of  ethical  and 
spiritual  realities.  But  plausible  as  the  objec- 
tion is,  it  must  be  faced  and  thrown,  for  it  is 
an  objection  against  the  whole  doctrine  of 
Christian  holiness,  and  it  can  be  met  only  by 
leaving  the  common  ways  of  specious  talk  and 
o^oins:  into  the  secrets  of  that  Divine  life  which 
the  man  of  God,  for  all  his  natural  faults  and 
frailties,  is  required  to  live. 

Let  us  observe  that  there  is,  notwithstand- 
ing the  appearance,  no  real  danger  of  any  holy 
person  being  puffed  up  with  pride ;  for  holi- 
ness is  Christlikeness,  and  Christ  says,  "  Learn 
of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart." 
Not  only  may  we  say  with  one,  against  whom 
the  charge  was  preferred,  that  he  encouraged 
pride  by  laying  claim  to  the  fulness  and  com- 


EGOTISM    EXCLUDED.  26 1 

pleteness  of  the  Christian  life,  "  Nay,  but  I 
include  humility  in  the  very  definition  of  that 
completeness ;  "  we  may  go  farther,  humility  is 
the  first  and  most  essential  element  of  holi- 
ness, the  self-emptying  which  is  required  in 
order  to  let  Christ  have  His  way  in  a  human 
heart  is  so  thorough  and  absolute  that  it  leaves 
no  root  of  pride  to  spring  up  in  the  exhausted 
soil.  The  very  conviction  which  says.  It  is  no 
longer  I,  but  Christ  that  dwelleth  in  me,  while 
it  presents  the  indwelling  Saviour  as  the  ob- 
ject of  reverence  and  imitation,  makes  any 
reversion  to  self-exaltation  not  only  illogical, 
but  distasteful,  and  in  the  last  resort  exquis- 
itely painful.  "  Do  not  talk  of  Dr.  Carey," 
said  that  great  Christ-filled  missionary  from 
the  bed  of  sickness,  surrounded  by  his  admir- 
ing friends,  "  but  talk  of  Dr.  Carey's  Saviour." 
And  when  Paul  ventured  to  say,  "  Be  ye  imi- 
tators of  me,"  so  far  from  implying  self-exalta- 
tion or  self-esteem,  the  exclamation  sprang  en- 
tirely from  a  life  that  was  too  "  hid  with  Christ 
in  God "  to  be  any  longer  conscious  of  an 
egotistic  impulse.      What  is   it    that  subdues 


262  THE    preacher's    PERSONALITY. 

and  fascinates  us  in  the  Imitatio  Christi?  It 
is  at  first  sight  a  piece  of  prolonged  self-intro- 
spection —  it  is  the  religion  of  the  cell,  the 
writer  lives  within  the  w^alls  of  a  monastery, 
and  his  phraseology  is  always  limited  by  his 
conditions  —  the  very  word  "  religion  "  to  him 
means  a  conventual  life  —  duties  and  obedi- 
ence have  reference  to  the  orders  of  his  Prior 
—  worship  means  the  adoration  of  ascetic 
orisons  or  the  half-superstitious  offering  of 
the  Mass.  Surely  this  must  be  morbid,  self- 
centred,  self-seeking,  the  vicious  circle  of  Ego- 
tism. How  comes  it  that  unbelievers,  no  less 
than  believers,  —  yes,  even  Positivists  like 
George  Eliot,  whose  ethics  is  Altruism,  and 
whose  deity  is  the  collective  humanity,  —  have 
found  in  the  brief  and  simple  sentences  the 
bread  on  which  the  spirit  can  live  and  grow  ? 
Is  it  not  because  the  real  imitation  of  Christ, 
that  assimilation  of  the  Personal  Saviour  which 
enables  a  man  to  speak  with  authority,  and 
even  to  stand  out  as  an  example  to  his  fellows, 
is  from  its  very  nature  the  progressive  decay 
of  self-consciousness  in  the  soul,  and  the  sub- 


HUMILITY    INEVITABLE.  263 

stitutlon   of   the   Being,   not    ourselves,   which 
makes  for  righteousness  ? 

Yes,  there  is  something  more  than  this.  A 
truth  becomes  apparent  as  we  walk  with  medi- 
tative step  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  holy 
places  of  God.  When  a  man  has  begun  to 
admit  to  himself,  that  in  order  to  receive  the 
word  of  God  he  must  quiet  his  spirit  and  lie 
bare  before  God,  like  the  placid  waters  of  a 
lake  which  receives  the  image  of  the  Infinite 
Heavens,  and  that  before  he  can  deliver  what 
he  has  received  he  must  permit  it  to  have  free 
course  and  be  glorified  in  his  own  person,  until 
the  light  begins  to  shine  not  only  as  a  reflec- 
tion on  his  face,  but  as  a  lamp  that  sends  its 
rays  up  from  within ;  when  the  high  call  of 
God  sounds  in  his  heart  that  he  should  first 
practise  what  he  is  to  preach,  and  should  first 
be  what  he  invites  others  to  become ;  he  is  set 
on  a  way  of  rigorous  self-discipline  and  manful 
wrestling  with  hydra-headed  monsters  which 
has  little  tendency  to  puff  him  up,  but  rather 
keeps  him  for  ever  concerned  and  watchful  and 
indescribably  humble. 


264     THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

Consider,  it  is  not  the  holy  man  that  is  con- 
ceited ;  it  is  not  he  who  feels  the  life  of  God  in 
the  soul,  and  is  kept  bowed  with  a  sense  of  the 
constant  visitation,  and  awestruck  by  the  trans- 
action of  Divine  miracles,  cleansing,  sustaining, 
and  strengthening  him  within.  He  surely  is 
entirely  debarred  from  conceit  who  has  had 
the  Vision  and  the  afflatus  and  the  command, 
and  whose  voice  trembles  with  the  rapturous 
Trisagion,  as  he  exclaims,  "  Thanks  be  to  God 
which  giveth  me  the  victory  !  Nay,  I  am  more 
than  conqueror  through  Him  that  loved  me. 
Was  there  ever  one  weaker  or  poorer  or  more 
sinful  than  I  ?  but  I  am  washed,  I  am  rich,  I 
am  strong  in  Him."  The  marvel  of  a  real 
saving  process  in  the  soul  is  this,  it  is  too  man- 
ifestly the  work  of  God  to  leave  any  room  for 
boasting.  But  he  rather,  you  will  notice,  is 
conceited  who  puts  it  to  the  credit  of  his 
humility  that  he  does  not  admit  the  perfect 
work  of  God  within,  and  therefore  is  not  dis- 
posed to  glorify  it. 

That  is  the  true  Egotism,  the  retention  of 
the  sinful  /  that  was  to  be  crucified  with  Christ 


AN    EXAMPLE.  265 

and  was  not,  and  the  perpetual  flaunting  of  the 
imperfections  of  the  soul  which  was  to  have 
been  subdued  and  quickened  by  the  power  of 
the  Risen  Christ,  and  is  not.  Unhappily  the 
humility  which  refuses  to  accept  the  great 
responsibility  of  becoming  through  a  lively 
faith  a  true  exhibition  of  Christ's  saving  power, 
proves  to  be  nothing  but  a  limitation  of  His 
saving  power,  and  a  slur  upon  the  fulness  of 
His  salvation.  Like  priest,  like  people.  If 
the  very  pastors  of  Christ's  flock  refuse  the 
command  of  God,  "  Be  ye  holy,  as  I  also  am 
holy,"  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  standard  of 
Christian  achievement  is  low  among  the  sheep 
of  His  fold.  "  If  gold  shall  rust,  what  will  the 
iron  do  ?  " 

I  conceive,  therefore,  the  real  preacher  of  the 
Word  as  one  who  is  before  all  other  thino^s 
occupied  in  keeping  clean  the  vessel  which  is 
to  deliver  and  distribute  the  things  of  God, 
"  purging  himself  from  all  defilement  of  the 
flesh  and  of  the  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in 
the  fear  of  God."  His  chief  concern  is  not  to 
prepare   sermons,   but   to   prepare    himself   to 


266  THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

deliver  sermons.  He  is  no  vendor  of  simples 
that  he  has  not  tried,  but  the  supreme  instance 
of  the  effect  which  his  simples  can  produce. 
He  is  too  intent  on  becoming  holy  to  even  say 
that  he  is  holy,  and  yet  as  the  mighty  process 
of  the  Divine  Love  goes  on  in  his  heart,  sub- 
duing sin,  and  developing  the  nine-fold  fruit 
of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  but  bear  witness  to  the 
thing  that  he  knows  ;  he  is  constrained  to  say 
to  his  people,  "  Would  God  ye  were  as  I  am  !  " 
I  conceive  his  sermons  as  only  fragments  of 
himself,  and  when  his  best  efforts  to  exhibit 
a  truth  have  apparently  failed,  the  failure  is 
really  retrieved  because  every  one  knows  the 
man  that  was  behind  the  effort.  He  preaches 
the  Atonement,  and  there  is  more  than  one 
fault  of  logic  in  his  exposition,  but  he  is  so 
obviously  at  one  with  God  Himself,  that  the 
severest  critic  inclines  to  follow  his  way,  if  not 
to  use  his  arguments.  He  blunders  possibly 
in  his  presentation  of  the  Trinity,  uses  a  trivial 
illustration,  and  you  would  think  has  sent  a 
score  of  his  most  thoughtful  people  over  to 
Unitarianism  ;  but  no,  he  was  himself  the  best 


COURAGE.  267 

illustration  of  the  Trinity,  for  the  Son  of  God 
was  manifestly  to  him  the  means  of  resting  in 
His  Father's  bosom,  and  the  Spirit  that  gave 
vitality  to  his  imperfect  words  was  more  sen- 
sibly Divine  than  the  Athanasian  Creed  had 
made  it.  And  when  he  comes  to  deal  with 
the  ethics  of  the  Christian  life  he  has  a  power 
which  the  most  brilliant  moral  philosopher 
could  not  excel,  he  exhibits  that  of  which  he 
speaks.  He  preaches  truth  as  one  who  is  sen- 
sitively veracious  and  sincere,  purity  as  one 
whose  own  thought  is  cleansed,  charity  as  one 
who  "  believes  all  things  and  hopes  all  things," 
courage  and  fidelity  as  one  who  always  leads 
in  the  forefront  of  the  battle,  and  is  the  first 
to  mount  the  breach,  the  last  to  leave  the  field. 
It  is  this  inward  life  of  holiness  stedfastly 
maintained  which  gives  him  a  firm  and  hope- 
ful spirit  in  the  midst  of  shocks  which  seem  to 
shake  the  faith,  and  in  face  of  foes  that  will 
give  no  quarter  to  Christianity.  Whatever 
hesitation  may  occur  in  his  treatment  of 
dogmas  there  is  none  in  his  treatment  of  life; 
whatever  misgivings  come  to  him  concerning 


268      THE  preacher's  PERSONALITY. 

the  world  and  the  Church,  he  has  none  con- 
cerning the  way  of  personal  holiness ;  for  that 
is  its  own  witness.  His  centre  of  certainty  is 
so  situated,  and  so  defended,  that  he  does  not 
travel  out  far  to  correct  and  denounce  others ; 
and  though  he  entertains  no  illusions  about 
the  grim  monsters  that  ravage  the  earth,  and 
knows  that  he  and  mankind  are  at  present 
outside  the  gleaming  gates,  guarded  by  the 
Seraphim  with  flaming  swords,  yet 

Forc'd  from  his  shadowy  paradise, 

His  thoughts  to  Heaven  the  steadier  rise  : 
There  seek  his  answer  when  the  world  reproves  : 

Contented  in  his  darkhng  round, 

If  only  he  be  faithful  found, 
When  from  the  East  the  eternal  morning  moves. 


LECTURE    IX. 


LECTURE    IX. 

METHODS    AND    MODES. 

"  He  that  hath  My  word,  let  him  speak  My  word  faithfully." 
—  Jer.  xxiii.  28. 

I  HAVE  detained  you  during  all  the  preced- 
ing lectures  in  the  consideration  of  the  one 
thing  needful.  This  one  thing  —  that  the 
preacher  should  veritably  receive  the  Word  of 
God  before  he  attempts  to  deliver  it  —  is  of 
such  moment,  that  all  the  other  questions 
which  are  discussed  in  a  science  of  Homiletics 
seem  to  be  secondary.  The  form  and  the 
composition  of  sermons  —  whether  they  should 
be  written  and  read,  written  and  memorised,  or 
studied  and  extemporised  —  the  style  of  de- 
livery—  the  physical  conditions  of  effective 
preaching  —  even  the  topics  and  texts  which 
should    be  selected  —  are,  relatively  speaking, 

unimportant.     That  counsel    of    Demosthenes 

271 


272  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

—  that  the  first  and  the  second  and  the  third 
thing  in  oratory  is  dehvery  —  does  not  apply 
to  preaching.  The  first  thing  stands  by  itself. 
The  one  question  is,  Has  this  preacher  "felt 
the  Spirit  of  the  Highest"  —  has  the  Word  of 
the  Lord  veritably  come  to  him  —  has  it  burnt 
as  a  fire  in  his  bones  until  he  cries,  Woe  is  me 
if  I  preach  not  ? 

But  if  we  may  now  assume  that  this  supreme 
condition  is  secured,  I  for  one  am  prepared  to 
attach  a  considerable  importance  to  the  sec- 
ondary things.  "  Let  him  speak  My  word 
faithfully  "  will  cover  not  only  the  fearless  proc- 
lamation of  unpalatable  truths,  not  only  an 
attempt  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God, 
not  only  those  qualities  which  Schleiermacher 
considered  essential  to  good  preaching,  "  a  per- 
fect moral  humility  with  energetic  independ- 
ence of  thought,  a  profound  sense  of  sin  with 
respect  for  criticism  and  a  passion  for  truth," 
but  also  the  habitudes  and  excellencies  of  a 
good  craftsman.  For  to  speak  God's  word 
faithfully  a  man  must  spare  no  pains  to  make 
it  effective ;  he  must  study  to  become  as  good 


TECHNICALITIES    OF    PREACHING.  273 

a  mouthpiece  and  as  tuneful  an  organ  for  the 
Divine  Spirit  to  use  as  may  be  possible  to  his 
natural  gifts  and  improved  opportunities. 

I  shall  therefore  crave  your  attention  for  a 
few  minutes  to  some  of  those  more  technical 
points  of  the  Preaching  Art  which  have  been 
entirely  passed  by  in  our  previous  discussions. 
I  shall  say  a  little  to  you  about  five  matters 
which  may  claim  your  consideration:  (i)  The 
Voice,  (2)  Rhetoric,  (3)  Composition,  (4)  Illus- 
tration, (5)  Variety  of  topics. 

Each  one  of  these  points  requires  care, 
though,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  they  have  gen- 
erally received  an  undue  attention,  so  that 
students  for  the  ministry  have  lost  sight  of  the 
far  more  important  question  which  underlies 
them  all. 

First,  about  the  Voice.  There  are  far  too 
few  preachers  against  whom  the  words  ad- 
dressed to  Ezekiel  could  be  urged,  "  Lo,  thou 
art  unto  them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that 
hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well  on 
an  instrument."  ^     Yet  so  charming  is  a  voice 

1  Ezek.  xxxiii.  32, 


2  74  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

of  sweet  tone  and  wide  compass  that  some 
preachers  have  held  a  congregation  for  years 
with  that  quahfication  alone.  Vox  et  prceterea 
nihil,  the  sweet  sound  has  soothed  the  hearers, 
and  if  it  has  taught  them  nothing  of  heavenly 
lore,  it  has  at  least  produced  a  dreamy  impres- 
sion of  celestial  melodies.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  well  known  that  some  of  the  greatest 
preachers  have  had  a  thin  and  cracked,  or  a 
harsh  and  thunderous  voice,  which  has  made 
it  difficult  for  them  to  secure  the  attention  of 
their  congregations  until  they  had  succeeded 
in  proving  that  the  imperfect  instrument  had  a 
noble  music  at  the  centre.  But  so  far  as  the 
voice  can  be  produced  by  careful  cultivation, 
and  modulated  by  study  and  practice,  the 
preacher  should  see  to  it  that,  like  a  good 
workman,  he  shall  never  mar  his  message  by  a 
flaw  in  the  instrument,  but  shall  give  to  all  the 
truths  he  has  to  communicate  the  added  charm 
of  a  musical  and  appropriate  delivery.  If  he 
has  never  learnt  to  sing  he  should  secure  the 
same  training  in  the  use  of  the  diaphragm,  and 
in  the   flexible  movements  of  the   lips,  which 


THE    VOICE.  275 

singers  find  necessary;  if  he  does  not  get  a 
proper  course  of  teaching  in  elocution,  he 
should  at  least  practise  distinctness  of  enuncia- 
tion, and  try  to  be  rid  of  any  mannerisms  or 
solecisms  of  speech  which  would  leave  an 
unpleasant  impression  on  cultivated  ears.  A 
candid  friend  who  will  not  shrink  from  point- 
ing out  these  defects,  or  these  menaces  of 
habit,  may  be  among  the  most  useful  precep- 
tors of  a  young  preacher.  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  to  secure  such  a  friend  it  is  worth  while 
for  a  minister  to  get  married.  But  the  sugges- 
tion is  far-fetched,  for  most  men  only  woo 
women  who  admire  their  faults,  and  to  marry 
a  wife  who  will  note  and  correct  an  ugly  mode 
of  speech  or  an  affected  way  of  delivery  would 
require  a  courage  which  is  seldom  found  on 
this  side  of  forty. 

But  above  all  things  a  man  who  means  to 
speak  to  men  should  avoid  that  monotonous 
sino'-song:  or  that  canonical  whine  which  affects 
foolish  young  women  to  tears,  and  sounds  to 
ecclesiastical  ears  like  a  signal  of  sanctity.  In 
England  the  widespread  indifference  to  public 


276  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

worship,  and  the  masculine  revolt  against  the 
Church,  are  largely  due  to  the  clerical  affecta- 
tions which  have  crept  in  with  the  other  medi- 
aevalisms  of  Anglo-Catholicism.  It  is  a  strange 
thing  if  the  man  of  God  is  to  be  something  less 
than  a  man. 

Second,  a  word  about  Rhetoric.  Rhetoric  in 
preaching  is  like  the  trumpet  and  the  band  in 
an  army;  it  is  a  good  accompaniment  of  the 
sword-play,  but  a  bad  substitute  for  it.  If  the 
"  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of 
God,"  should  be  absent,  all  the  fanfaronade  may 
be  disregarded,  there  will  be  no  execution. 
The  roll  of  drums  .and  the  cadence  of  brass 
instruments  stir  warlike  impulses,  but  do  not 
rout  the  enemy.  This  drum  and  trumpet  rhet- 
oric is  found  wanting.  God  gives  a  command 
to  His  servant : 

Wherever  Truth  her  holy  warfare  wages, 

Or  Freedom  pines,  there  let  thy  voice  be  heard ; 

Sound  like  a  prophet-warning  down  the  ages, 
The  human  utterance  of  God's  living  word. 

He  will  not  be  content,  nor  will  the  men  who 


RHETORIC.  ^77 

hear,  if  there  is  simply  a  fine  display  of  elo- 
quence, splendid  images,  anecdotes  which  stir 
to  laughter,  and  appeals  which  move  to  tears. 
The  stern  impatience  of  the  modern  mind 
towards  the  pulpit  points  to  a  growing  convic- 
tion that  we  have  had  enough  of  trumpet  and 
band,  and  it  is  time  now  for  the  sword-play,  the 
onset,  and  the  victorious  grapple. 

Yet  if  the  message  is  real,  and  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit  is  at  work,  a  man  may  do  his  best 
with  rhetoric.  He  may  master  it;  it  must  not 
master  him.  As  poetry  lasts  and  works  when 
prose  is  dead,  just  because  it  is  the  fittest  form 
of  speech,  the  best  word-  always  in  the  best 
place,  so  rhetoric,  which  is  the  poetry  of  the 
spoken  word,  gains  an  entrance  and  effects 
a  lodgment  where  more  pedestrian  language 
fails.  A  preacher  will  do  well  to  study  the 
secret  of  great  orators,  in  the  senate,  in  the 
pulpit,  or  on  the  platform.  Part  of  the  secret 
is  communicable.  It  is  largely  a  question  of 
taking  pains ;  it  is  partly  a  matter  of  practice. 
And  whatever  approved  human  methods  there 
may  be  of  fixing  attention  and  of  communicat- 


278  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

ing  truth,  let  them  all  be  employed  in  this 
supreme  task  of  speech,  the  delivery  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  study  of  good  models  is 
usually  more  effective  than  the  study  of  rules. 
The  Eno:lish  Bible  is  the  best  model  of  all,  but 
Shakespeare  and  Milton  come  second ;  and 
a  man  who  habitually  thinks  in  the  language 
of  these  three  will  acquire  a  range  of  expres- 
sion, a  command  of  phrase,  a  psychological 
penetration  of  utterance,  which,  with  proper 
attention  to  the  delivery  and  the  voice,  will 
secure  all  the  advantages  of  rhetoric. 

I  am  aware  of  a  tendency  to  colloquialise 
the  language  of  the  pulpit,  and  to  assimilate  it 
to  the  style  of  a  leading  article  in  a  daily  news- 
paper. We  are  invited  to  address  the  people 
in  the  vernacular  of  the  people.  Our  sermons 
are  to  be  paragraphs,  pointed,  pithy,  personal. 
We  are  to  introduce  the  tall  talk,  the  rant,  the 
cheap  quotations,  which  pass  for  eloquence  in 
other  quarters.  We  are  to  be  demagogues  in 
order  to  lead  the  Demos.  I  hope  this  tendency 
will  be  resisted,  for  it  rests  on  a  delusion. 
Though  poptclus  and  vtilgtis  sound  like  syno- 


COMPOSITION.  279 

nyms,  popularity  and  vulgarity  are  by  no 
means  identical.  A  demagogue  does  not  lead 
the  Demos ;  he  is  led  by  them.  The  vernacu- 
lar of  the  people  is  not  the  debased  language 
of  the  street  any  more  than  worn  and  fretted 
coins  are  the  coinage  of  the  realm.  But  the 
true  vernacular  in  which  men  are  to  be  ap- 
proached, especially  on  high  and  momentous 
themes,  is  that  pure  well  of  English  undefiled 
which  even  common  minds,  when  they  hear  it, 
recognise  as  their  real  mother  tongue,  and  wel- 
come with  gratitude  as  an  ennobling  relief 
from  the  debased  lingo  and  the  nickel  slang 
with  which  they  are  too  familiar. 

Third,  Composition.  I  have  no  inclination 
to  give  any  rules  for  the  composition  of  ser- 
mons. If  I  were  tempted  to  give  them  I 
should  end  by  a  recommendation  to,  more  or 
less  systematically,  break  them.  But  one  gen- 
eral remark  may  be  worth  insisting  on.  A 
sermon  is  not  only  relative  to  the  preacher, 
and  relative  to  the  Truth  which  is  to  be  de- 
livered, but  it  is  also  relative  to  the  audience. 
It  is  the  peculiar  weakness  of  written  sermons 


28o  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

when  they  are  composed  for  general  use,  and 
not  with  a  view  to  a  stated  audience  or  a 
special  occasion,  that  they  generally  fail  to 
grapple  the  hearers  in  a  way  to  secure  atten- 
tion. It  is  true,  few  of  us  would  be  so  inept 
as  the  famous  Oxford  divine  who  was  asked  to 
preach  in  the  gaol  on  the  eve  of  an  execution, 
and  selected  from  his  drawer  one  of  a  course 
of  sermons  which  had  been  delivered  before 
the  University.  After  a  very  affecting  and 
beautiful  discourse  he  amiably  concluded  by 
saying  to  the  condemned  men  —  "And  now, 
my  brethren,  we  will  remit  the  remainder  of 
the  subject  to  the  next  occasion,  when  I  hope 
to  see  you  all  present  again."  But  there  is  an 
awkwardness  of  the  same  quality  in  many  ex- 
cellent sermons  delivered  to  modern  audiences. 
A  sermon  needs  an  occasion ;  it  must  have  a 
starting-point  in  the  condition  or  the  senti- 
ment of  the  hearers.  As  Bacon  wisely  said, 
"  Pre-occupation  of  mind  ever  requireth  preface 
of  speech,  like  a  fomentation  to  make  the 
unguent  enter."  ^     And  yet,  as  the  same  great 

^  Essay  xxv.  :  Of  Dispatch. 


RELATIVE  TO  THE  HEARERS.       28 1 

student  of  men  says,  "  To  use  too  many  cir- 
cumstances ere  one  come  to  the  matter  is 
wearisome;  to  use  none  at  all  is  blunt." ^ 

If  the  congregation  is  prepared,  the  sermon 
may  immediately  plunge  in  medias  res ;  but  if 
not,  the  minds  of  the  hearers  must  be  first 
wooed,  and  won,  grappled,  interested,  opened. 
A  true  pastor  knows  the  state  of  the  people's 
thought.  An  evangelist  engaged  in  a  mission 
knows  that  his  hearers  are  there  in  the  expec- 
tation of  a  summons  to  immediate  decision 
and  steadfast  surrender  to  Christ.  But  the 
preacher  who  has  no  clue  to  the  condition,  the 
presuppositions,  the  expectations  of  his  con- 
gregation, is  not  in  a  position  to  compose  a 
sermon  at  all.  He  will  do  better  to  compose 
himself,  to  wait  long  and  patiently  on  God,  to 
receive  the  definite  illumination  of  the  Spirit, 
and  then  watch  for  the  signs  among  the  people, 
and  speak  as  occasion  offers.  A  few  hours 
may  suffice  to  compose  a  sermon  for  a  people 
whom  you  know  in  the  home  and  the  school 
and  the  church  —  men  and  women  whom  you 

1  Essay  xxxii. :  Of  Discourse. 


282  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

have  met  at  the  altar  of  marriage,  at  the  font, 
at  the  grave.  You  know  where  to  find  them  ; 
the  premisses  are  readily  granted ;  and  you 
advance  into  your  subject  with  a  sure  step. 
But  to  speak  to  an  unknown  people  will  re- 
quire the  preparation  of  a  lifetime,  a  mind  that 
is  quickened  with  a  Divine  insight,  a  heart 
that  is  sensitive  with  rapid  human  sympathies, 
a  tongue  which  is  ready  with  winged  and  un- 
premeditated words.  Perhaps  the  chief  dan- 
ger lies  with  the  pastor  who  knows  his  flock 
so  well  that  he  is  tempted  to  stint  preparation, 
and  to  become  slovenly  in  the  composition  of 
his  sermons.  A  too  uniform  mode  of  hand- 
ling the  subject  will  induce  apathy,  and  stifle 
that  breath  of  curiosity  which  makes  a  diligent 
listener.  A  settled  pastor,  therefore,  must  be 
observant,  and  quick  to  notice  the  signs  of 
drowsiness.  If  he  observes  that  his  "  firstly  " 
provokes  an  air  of  resignation,  his  "  secondly " 
a  gentle  folding  of  the  hands  and  settling  in 
the  corners,  his  "  thirdly "  a  general  sigh  of 
despair,  and  his  "  lastly  "  the  first  sign  of  relief 
and  interest,  it  is  time  to  change  his  method 


RELATIVE  TO  THE  HEARERS.       283 

of  composition  —  to  begin  with  the  "lastly," 
flinging  the  soporific  framework  to  the  winds, 
and  to  step  out  from  behind  his  sermon,  speak- 
ing to  his  people,  as  it  were,  face  to  face. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  notices  that  his 
loose  and  extemporaneous  style  becomes  too 
much  like  the  rattling  of  a  drum,  stirs  the  peo- 
ple without  impressing  them,  interests  without 
convincing,  moves  without  converting,  —  it  may 
be  time  to  bring  up  the  more  solid  engine  of 
carefully  constructed  discourse,  piling  storey 
upon  storey  in  a  way  to  draw  attention  upward 
to  a  crowning  summit. 

The  most  fatal  thing  is  when  a  preacher 
sinks  into  a  sermon-maker,  like  an  artist  who 
becomes  a  mere  picture-maker ;  when,  conceiv- 
ing the  sermon  as  the  end  in  itself,  a  work  of 
art  to  be  produced  by  fixed  rules  and  on  a  de- 
fined method,  he  devotes  himself  to  it,  forget- 
ting both  the  people  who  are  to  be  edified  and 
the  truth  which  is  to  edify  them.  The  sermon 
is  merely  a  weapon,  and  must  be  adapted  to 
the  new  modes  of  warfare.  I  would  as  soon 
think   of  preaching  like   Thomas  Goodwin  or 


284  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

John  Owen  as  of  bringing  the  arquebus  and 
the  halberd  of  the  Commonwealth  period  into 
a  modern  field  of  battle.  An  ironclad  warship 
is  not  nearly  so  picturesque  as  the  full-sailed 
three-deckers  that  Nelson  commanded  at  Tra- 
falgar, and  a  sermon  suited  for  to-day  may  not 
be  half  so  long  or  stately  or  brilliant  or  poetic 
as  the  orations  of  Robert  Hall  or  John  Angell 
James,  but  the  sole  question  is  one  of  fitness : 
Which  here  and  now  will  go  home  most  surely, 
and  accomplish  the  work  most  effectively  ?  If, 
then,  you  adopt  a  rule  of  composition,  see 
that  it  is  a  brittle  one,  and  never  hesitate  to 
break  it  when  a  new  occasion  calls  for  a  new 
method. 

Fourth,  Illustration.  It  may  seem  to  some 
to  be  giving  a  disproportionate  place  to  the 
subject  of  Illustration,  when  I  select  it  from 
the  innumerable  points  of  the  preacher's  craft, 
and  set  it  among  the  five.  But  it  is  in  many 
cases  the  crucial  point  for  one  w^ho  is  to 
teach  and  lead  a  mixed  congregation,  and 
therefore  a  student  cannot  turn  his  attention 
to   it  too  soon.     Abstract   modes    of   thought 


FLEXIBILITY.  285 

grow  upon  us  too  easily  when  we  spend 
much  time  with  books,  and  in  the  reverie 
of  study.  Illustrations  become  tiresome  and 
impertinent  to  a  trained  thinker.  The  fasci- 
nation of  close  and  connected  reasoning,  and 
of  convincing  the  understanding  by  logical 
methods,  becomes  almost  irresistible  to  a  grow- 
ing mind.  To  breathe  in  the  higher  circles 
of  thought,  and  to  see  the  small  matters  of 
the  field  or  the  market-place  from  a  serene 
altitude,  is  undoubtedly  proper  to  a  philoso- 
pher ;  and  if  a  preacher  studies  diligently,  and 
exercises  himself  in  the  company  of  great 
thinkers,  he  is  apt  to  become  a  philosopher, 
and  insensibly  to  drift  away  from  common 
life,  and  lose  touch  with  ordinary  people.  It 
would  be  well,  no  doubt,  to  have  a  philosopher 
preaching  to  philosophers,  though  he  would 
have  a  tough  task,  and  might  end  by  forfeiting 
his  philosophy.  But  the  vast  majority  of  man- 
kind are  not  abstract  thinkers  —  their  minds 
almost  immediately  flag  when  they  leave 
familiar  objects.  It  is  well  not  to  speak  even 
about  geography   unless   you   have  a  map  to 


286  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

show  them,  still  less  about  the  stars  unless 
you  have  an  orrery  and  a  telescope.  If,  then, 
we  would  interest  them  in  the  affairs  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom,  we  must,  like  the  King 
Himself,  speak  in  parables  or  allegories.  Our 
discourse  must  be  of  tangible  things  and 
familiar  persons  while  we  suggest  the  invisible 
and  the  eternal.  Under  images  of  flesh  and 
blood  the  truths  of  the  Spirit  must  be  con- 
veyed into  minds  half  aware.  Let  me  quote 
Bacon  again  —  the  one  English  philosopher 
who  has  ever  spoken  to  the  average  mind, 
precisely  because  of  his  endless  ingenuity  of 
illustration,  and  his  unrivalled  richness  of 
colouring.  "Some  have  in  readiness,"  he  says, 
"so  many  tales  and  stories,  as  there  is  nothing 
they  would  not  insinuate,  but  they  can  wrap  it 
into  a  tale,  which  seemeth  ...  to  make  others 
carry  it  with  more  pleasure."  ^  Every  Bible- 
reader  knows  how  the  splendid  imagery  of 
the  Apocalypse  reaches  simple  minds  that  are 
untouched  by  St.  Paul,  and  how^  even  Paul 
himself,  whose  mind  was  not  fertile  in  imagery 

^  Essay  xxii. :  Of  Cunning. 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  287 

or  sensitive  to  the  poetic  aspect  of  things, 
constantly  employed  the  concrete  stories  of 
the  Old  Testament  —  near  and  familiar  to  all 
his  readers  —  as  allegories  of  the  lofty  matters 
which  he  wished  to  "  insinuate."  While  when 
all  is  said  and  done  the  part  of  the  New 
Testament  which  retains  the  most  powerful 
hold  of  the  world  is  "  the  truth  embodied  in 
a  tale "  of  the  Four  Gospels.  The  narrative 
of  that  perfect  life,  the  picture  of  that  perfect 
Being,  the  exquisite  colour  and  movement  of 
the  stories  in  which  He  taught  the  people, 
and  the  allegorical  significance  of  even  His 
miracles,  speak  to  all  generations  with  a  new 
voice,  and  constantly  suggest  how  we,  even 
to-day,  ought  to  preach  the  Word  of  God.  It 
was  the  apprehension  of  this  truth  that  led  the 
builders  of  St.  Mark's  at  Venice  to  cover  the 
walls  within  and  without  with  the  gospel  in 
mosaic.  It  was  this  that  led  one  of  the  world's 
noblest  religious  teachers,  Edmund  Spenser, 
to  throw  his  discourse  of  virtue  and  vice,  the 
Faerie  Quee^ie,  into  the  form  of  an  Allegory ; 
for,  as  he  says,  "  Xenophon  is  preferred  before 


288  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

Plato,  for  that  the  one  in  the  exquisite  depth 
of  his  judgment  formed  a  Commonwealth  such 
as  it  should  be ;  but  the  other,  in  the  person 
of  Cyrus  and  the  Persians,  fashioned  a  govern- 
ment such  as  might  best  be ;  so  much  more 
profitable  and  gracious  is  doctrine  by  ensample 
than  by  rule."  Let  the  preacher  do  his  think- 
ing in  the  abstract,  as  Michael  Angelo  studied 
the  human  frame  in  a  skeleton,  but  let  him 
clothe  it  for  the  people  in  the  concrete,  and 
see  that  all  his  language  is  that  of  one  who, 
though  he  spends  long  hours  in  heavenly 
places,  yet  lives  and  moves  among  men.  And 
lest  this  counsel  should  be  abused,  let  me 
observe  that,  while  to  string  together  anec- 
dotes in  which  "  thrill  is  everything  and  rele- 
vancy nothing,"  is  the  easiest  and  most 
shambling  mode  of  popular  and  idle  speech ; 
to  get  and  to  use  real  illustrations  —  illustra- 
tions, that  is,  which  actually  illustrate,  and 
are  not  only  brought  in  to  show  their  own 
brilliance  —  is  a  very  laborious  task,  demand- 
ing very  careful  study  and  close  observation, 
a  methodical  collection  of  incidents  and  facts, 


THE    BIBLE    METHOD.  289 

and  a  long  meditation  on  the  eternal  relation 
between  Nature,  which  Goethe  called  the  gar- 
ment of  God,  and  God  who  is  the  Interpreter, 
as  He  is  the  Creator,  of  Nature.  No  idle  man 
can  use  illustrations  or  tell  anecdotes  properly 
—  and  yet  they  are  the  constant  resource  of 
the  idle.  It  is  one  thing  to  deck  a  Christmas- 
tree  with  dolls,  trinkets,  oranges,  and  candles ; 
it  is  quite  another  thing  to  produce  a  real  tree 
with  the  delicate  burgeons,  the  unfolding  blos- 
soms, and  the  luminous  fruits  of  its  kind.  The 
one  is  fantastic,  the  other  creative.  And  the 
use  of  illustrations  must  be  creative,  and  not 
fantastic. 

Fifth,  Variety.  Those  of  you  who  were 
privileged  to  hear,  and  even  those  who,  like 
myself,  have  only  had  the  advantage  of  read- 
ing. Dr.  Stalker's  Yale  Lectures  in  1891,  will 
hardly  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  manifold- 
ness  of  a  faithful  Christian  ministry.  And 
even  those  of  you  who  can  accept  the  view 
taken  in  the  present  lectures,  and  are  prepared 
to  receive  the  Word  in  its  fulness  and  expan- 
siveness  direct  from  God   Himself  to  deliver  to 


290  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

your  fellow-men,  will  probably  not  err  on  the 
side  of  artificial  restrictions  upon  the  subjects 
of  preaching.  It  is  only  he  who  is  bound  by 
the  mechanical  conception  of  the  Word  of  God 
as  a  book,  the  last  page  of  which  was  written 
many  hundreds  of  years  ago,  and  is  therefore 
deterred  from  receiving  the  fresh  and  vital  in- 
spirations of  the  Living  Word,  or  Logos,  that 
falls  into  a  contracted  choice  of  topics  and 
gradually  fails  —  unless  he  be  a  man  of  great 
natural  gifts,  eloquence,  wit,  and  vigour  —  to 
hold  the  attention  and  touch  the  imagination 
of  an  active  age  like  this. 

But  there  is  still  a  remark  to  be  made  on  the 
point  of  variety  which,  though  obvious  enough, 
has  not  always  struck  the  preacher  until  it  is 
too  late  to  be  of  much  avail.  In  every  modern 
congregation,  especially  among  the  more  ad- 
vanced and  progressive  communities  which  form 
the  great  cities  of  America  and  England,  there 
will  be  found  a  remarkable  gamut  of  intel- 
lectual states,  of  emotional  susceptibilities,  of 
temperamental  affinities.  A  man  of  God  who 
is  bent  on  giving  God's  message  to  this  diversi- 


VARIETY.  291 

fied  audience  will  do  well  to  picture  to  himself 
the  whole  scale  over  which  his  appeals  must 
range,  and  to  be  very  careful  not  to  remain 
too  long  on  any  point  of  the  scale,  or  to 
leave  any  other  point  in  the  scale  too  long 
untouched. 

We  do  not  live  in  a  time  when  any  presup- 
positions are  universally  granted.  Among  the 
Jews  of  the  First  Century,  the  Law  with  its 
Theism  and  its  strong  ethical  axioms  was 
taken  for  granted.  In  our  day  we  cannot 
assume  that  all  our  hearers  are  even  Theists; 
we  cannot  even  be  sure  that  they  all  admit  the 
existence  of  conscience  and  moral  responsi- 
bility. It  is  necessary,  therefore,  from  time  to 
time  to  lay,  in  full  view  of  modern  science  and 
the  current  philosophical  notions,  the  old  foun- 
dations of  faith  in  God  and  the  claim  of  the 
moral  law.  The  Bible  is  written  by  Theists 
for  Theists ;  the  preacher  now^  often  has  to 
address  Atheists.  The  Bible  assumes  that 
men  possess  a  moral  sense ;  modern  material- 
ism and  the  gross  sensuality  of  drunken  and 
debauched   cities    have    discredited    even    this 


292  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

primary  assumption.  The  preacher  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  will  be  compelled  to  make 
broad  the  basis  of  his  teaching  in  the  demon- 
strable truths  of  Natural  Religion. 

Or  aeain,  in  the  mediaeval  Church  the 
authority  of  the  Church  could  be  assumed. 
By  threats  of  inconceivable  severity  the  minds 
of  men  were  terrified,  and  the  mighty  premiss 
of  the  Church's  infallibility  was  established  by 
the  same  arts  that  had  formerly  secured  the 
autocracy  of  the  Ccesars.  No  wise  preacher 
to-day,  even  in  the  Roman  Church,  will  start 
from  that  shattered  premiss  ;  and  every  true 
son  of  the  Reformation  will  rejoice  that  a 
firmer  axiom  is  possible,  and  a  more  impreg- 
nable position  is  to  be  sought. 

Or  again,  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  every 
preacher  might  assume  that  his  hearers  granted 
the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures,  and  his  argu- 
ments could  proceed  on  a  simple  basis  of  "  It 
is  written."  There  arc  still  many  individuals 
in  all  congregations  who  readily  grant  this 
assumption,  but  woe  to  the  preacher  who  for- 
eets  the  increasins^  number  of  those  who  do 


DIFFERENT    TEMPERAMENTS.  293 

not !  Nothing  can  surpass  the  futihty  and,  in 
the  end,  the  mischief  of  the  dogmatic  appeal, 
made  with  dull  vehemence  and  harsh  unreason, 
on  the  ground  of  Biblical  authority,  to  those 
who  are  really  waiting  for  evidence  that  the 
Bible  is  authentic  or  true,  consistent  or  con- 
vincing, inspired  or  authoritative. 

And  if  the  diversity  of  intellectual  condi- 
tions must  constantly  be  remembered,  it  is 
equally  necessary  to  consider  the  wide  differ- 
ence of  temperaments,  and  to  preach  with 
some  adaptation  to  these  differences.  Some 
are  moved  only  by  reason,  and  become  stolid 
and  resentful  directly  an  emotional  key  is 
struck.  Some  are  moved  only  by  emotion, 
and  grow  apathetic  and  fidgety  whenever  the 
discourse  moves  on  the  lines  of  pure  thought. 
Each  of  these  classes  must  be  sought  and  won. 
Still  more  strikino^  is  the  divero^ence  between 
the  ethical  or  practical  mind  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  mystical  or  spiritual  on  the  other. 
The  first  will  be  reached  by  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  and  in  some  plain  discourse  about 
keeping  the  passions  under  control,  or  the  like, 


294  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

will  be  led  to  the  secret  of  God  ;  the  other, 
unmoved  by  the  strong  appeal  of  duty,  will  see 
nothino-  in  Christ  until  He  is  bein^:  tortured 
and  crucified,  and  will  only  be  stirred  to  re- 
pentance, amendment,  and  a  new  life  by  some 
clear  and  sharp  doctrine  in  the  metaphysics  of 
Redemption.  It  is  a  one-sided  and  ineffectual 
ministry  which  overlooks  these  endless  vari- 
eties, and  the  man  who  would  make  full  proof 
of  his  ministry,  and  speak  faithfully  the  Word 
of  God,  must  suffer  his  mind  and  heart  to  ex- 
pand until  he  can,  to  some  extent,  at  any  rate, 
realise  the  numberless  states  and  conditions 
and  requirements  which  are  represented  In 
even  a  very  ordinary  congregation  of  modern 
w^orshlppers. 

But  I  may  not  dwell  any  longer  on  these 
secondary  considerations,  and,  Indeed,  It  is  now 
time  for  me  to  draw  my  exhortations  to  a 
close,  and  to  take  leave  of  you,  my  young 
brothers  In  the  service  of  Christ.  Whether 
the  view  of  the  Christian  ministry  which  I 
have  presented  commands  your  assent  and 
claims  your  adhesion  or  not;  whether  the  mes- 


CONCLUSION.  295 

saore  which  I  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  dehver 
finds  a  lodo^ment  in  American  hearts ;  whether 
I  shall  ever  be  permitted  to  see  you  again  and 
to  learn  of  your  progress  and  success  in  your 
sacred  calling,  or  now,  for  once  only,  I  have 
met  you,  not  to  renew  our  communion  until 
we  come  together,  with  all  the  sons  of  God 
from  the  beginning,  to  render  account  of  our 
stewardship ;  —  I  may  be  permitted  in  a  few 
parting  words  to  leave  upon  your  minds  my 
own  impression  of  the  greatness  and  the  glory 
of  this  call  to  be  the  prophets  and  the  mes- 
sengers of  God. 

There  are,  I  suppose,  with  you,  as  with  us, 
some  who  thrust  themselves  into  a  priest's 
office  for  a  morsel  of  bread.  In  my  Oxford 
days  I  came  into  contact  with  not  a  few,  who 
entered  the  sacred  office  of  the  ministry  for  the 
most  shameless  reasons  —  a  family  living  was 
in  their  possession,  a  failure  in  the  schools 
showed  them  that  they  could  not  expect  pro- 
motion in  the  learned  professions,  sometimes 
even  the  mere  insistence  of  parents,  the  prompt- 
ings of  vanity,  or  the  weakness  for  eccleslasti- 


296  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

cal  millinery  and  ancient  liturgies,  inclined 
them  to  adopt  the  clerical  life  as  a  profession. 
Christianity  in  England  labours  under  the 
incubus  of  large  numbers  of  ministers  who 
from  these  irrelevant  motives  have  become  the 
apparent  representatives  of  Christ,  and  the 
utterers  of  the  Word  of  God  to  the  people.  If 
the  view  that  I  have  urged  is  correct,  not  only 
have  these  false  prophets  heaped  up  for  them- 
selves a  stern  reward,  but  the  Church  which 
delights  to  have  it  so  is  forfeiting  all  claim  to 
represent  the  living  Word  to  the  living  genera- 
tion. The  apparent  reconciliation  of  God  and 
Mammon  is  the  most  ominous  feature  of  the 
present  situation  ;  and  one's  heart  quails  to  see 
how  "  in  the  Prophet's  soul  the  dreams  of  ava- 
rice stay  "  — 

No  Sim  or  star  so  bright 

In  all  the  world  of  light 
That  they  should  draw  to  Heaven  his  downward  eye ; 

He  hears  the  Almighty's  word, 

He  sees  the  angel's  sword, 
Yet  low  upon  the  earth  his  heart  and  treasure  lie. 

Just  as  the  hope  of  ancient  Israel  lay  in  those 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  PROPHETS.     297 

great  prophets  of  the  Seventh  and  Sixth  Cen- 
turies, who  came,  burdened  with  the  word  of 
the  Lord,  to  denounce  a  corrupt  State  and  a 
priestly  Church,  and  sacrificed  fame  and  honour, 
comfort  and  Hfe,  in  order  to  assert  the  abiding 
authority  of  a  present  Spiritual  Revelation ;  so 
the  hope  of  Christendom  at  the  present  time 
practically  lies  in  the  emergence  of  real  proph- 
ets, who,  viewing  with  clear  eyes  the  abomina- 
tions of  so-called  Christian  society,  and  judg- 
ing with  the  detachment  of  inspiration  the 
gross  corruptions  of  Churches  that  dwell  in 
tradition,  and  not  in  the  spirit,  and  seek  their 
own  things  instead  of  the  things  of  God,  can 
utter  a  voice  clear  and  convincing  which  all 
men  shall  recognise  as  the  Word  of  God. 

And  I  ask  myself  if  the  prophets  are  to 
return  into  our  midst  where  rather  should  we 
look  for  their  appearing  than  in  this  New 
World,  which  was  first  settled  by  men  of  the 
prophetic  temper  fleeing  from  the  Jezebel  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century,  and  has  grown  up, 
not  altogether  unconscious  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
Highest?     Possibly  God  will  call  His  prophets 


298  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

not  from  Jerusalem  or  Samaria,  but  from  Tekoa 
and  Anathoth.  It  is  not  for  us  to  assume  that 
because  He  has  called  us  to  His  ministry  He 
will  withhold  His  communications  from  others, 
untrained  and  unlearned,  who  have  not  been 
summoned  to  this  vocation.  But  speaking  as  a 
man,  with  all  the  limitations  of  human  insight 
and  judgment,  I  cannot  but  inquire,  if  the 
prophets  are  to  come  to  the  world  again,  why 
not  from  this  Western  Hemisphere  of  buoyant 
hope  and  quickening  impulse,  and  if  from 
America,  why  not  from  this  old  and  conse- 
crated college  ? 

Suffer  me  to  say  to  you,  as  young  Ameri- 
cans, your  danger  seems  to  lie  in  the  engrossing 
power  of  material  progress,  and  that  ferment 
of  orrowino;  lucre  which  forbids  the  entrance  of 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Is  not  that  mighty  Spirit 
moving  you  to  set  your  face  like  a  flint  against 
this  benumbing  influence,  to  cry  aloud  and 
spare  not,  in  resisting  "  the  narrowing  lust  of 
gold  "  ?  Are  you  not  resolved  that  this  mighty 
State,  this  complex  people,  the  latest  birth  of 
time,  the  brightest  hope  of  the  future,  shall  not 


ACCEPT    YOUR    CALLING.  :299 

fail  of  its  calling,  and  fall  from  its  inheritance, 

to  become  — 

A  Race 
Shrivelling  in  sunshine  of  its  prosperous  years, 

but  shall  accomplish  the  purpose  which  was 
planted  by  the  trembling  hands  of  God's  fugi- 
tives in  American  soil,  when  the  men  of  the 
Mayfloiver  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  ? 

Suffer  me  to  say  to  you,  as  young  ministers 
—  and  prophets — come  out  into  those  wide 
spaces  where  the  whisper  of  God  is  heard  in 
the  air,  and  climb  those  mountain  heights 
where  He  passes  by  in  the  awful  joy  of  revela- 
tion ;  come  out,  touch  not  the  unclean  thing ; 
do  not  entangle  yourselves  in  the  things  of  the 
world.  It  is  yours  to  see  God  face  to  face  and 
live;  it  is  yours  to  feel  the  mighty  voice  thrill- 
ing through  your  heart,  subduing  your  mind, 
and  stirring  your  will  to  the  omnipotence  of 
self-emptied  obedience.  The  message  of  God 
is  abroad  —  the  oracles  are  open  —  it  is  for  you 
to  enter  in,  to  receive,  and  to  communicate. 
Ambition  must  be  dead ;  avarice  must  be 
dead  ;  self  altogether  must  be  dead.     And  you, 


300  METHODS    AND    MODES. 

the  Cross  in  your  soul,  the  love  of  God  shed 
abroad  in  your  heart,  are  to  be  like  one  "  set 
down 

In  some  strange  jeopardy  on  enormous  hills, 
Or  swimming  at  night  alone  upon  the  sea,  — 
Whose  lesser  life  falls  from  him,  and  the  dream 
Is  broken  which  had  held  him  unaware, 
And  with  a  shudder  he  feels  his  naked  soul 
In  the  great  black  world  face  to  face  with  God." 


THE    END. 


JUST   READY. 


New  Work  by  Professor  EDWARD  CAIRD. 

The  Evolution  of  Religion. 

The  Gifford  Lectures  delivered  before  the  University  of  St.  An- 
drews in  sessions  1890-91  and  1891-92. 

BY 

EDWARD  CAIRD,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  late  Fel- 
low and  Tutor  of  Merton  college,  Oxford. 

2  Vols.,  8vo,  cloth,  $4.00. 

"  In  preparing  these  Lectures  I  have  specially  had 
in  view  that  large  and  increasing  class  who  have 
become,  partially  at  least,  alienated  from  the  ordi- 
nary dogmatic  system  of  belief,  but  who,  at  the  same 
time,  are  conscious  that  they  have  owed  a  great  part 
of  their  spiritual  life  to  the  teachings  of  the  Bible 
and  the  Christian  Church.  .  .  .  What  I  have  aimed 
at  throughout  has  been  rather  to  illustrate  a  certain 
method  of  dealing  with  the  facts  of  religious  history 
in  the  light  of  the  idea  of  development,  than  to 
exhaust  anyone  application  of  that  method." — From 
Preface. 

MACMILLAN   &   CO., 

112  FOURTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 
I 


THE  GENESIS  AND  GROWTH  OF  RELIGION. 

The  L.  P.  Stone  Lectures  for  1892,  at  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary,  New  Jersey. 

By  the  Rev.  S.  H.  KELLOGG,  D.D.  of  Toronto,  Canada.     i2mo,  $1.50. 


*'  If  Dr.  Kellogg  has,  by  his  earlier  publications,  challenged  the 
respect  of  scholars,  his  fame  has  not  been  lessened  by  the  publication 
of  the  present  series  of  Lectures.  .  .  .  Dr.  Kellogg's  book  is  a  val- 
uable contribution  to  the  History  and  Philosophy  of  Religion.  The 
scholarship  manifested  is  worthy  of  respect.  A  generous  candor  is 
shown  in  the  collection  of  historic  illustrations,  which  sometimes  tell 
against  his  argument." — Charles  Mellen  Tyler,  in  The  Philosophical 
Review. 

"This  is  an  admirable  volume.  The  author  first  defines  religion, 
then  dissipates  the  dreams  of  fetishism  and  animism,  the  ghost  theory 
of  Herbert  Spencer,  and  the  misty  view  of  Max  MUller,  after  which  he 
sets  forth  the  true  genesis  of  religion,  confirms  it  by  the  consideration 
of  sin  as  a  factor,  and  illustrates  it  by  the  historic  facts  of  religious 
development,  and  finally  gives  the  true  view  of  Semitic  monotheism. 
The  discussion  is  logical  and  conclusive,  and  the  book  is  remarkable 
for  the  clearness  and  calmness  with  which  the  truth  is  presented.  It 
may  be  heartily  commended  as  worth  the  attention  of  all  interested  in 
the  subject."  —  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"...  The  theme  is  dealt  with  in  a  calm,  lucid  style,  and  every 
chapter  of  the  book  shows  the  author's  wide  grasp  of  his  subject,  which 
he  handles  throughout  in  masterly  fashion," — Neiv  York  Observer. 

"...  The  work  is  scholarly  in  its  character,  and  is  precisely  the 
volume  that  was  needed  to  meet  the  questions  that  men  are  asking 
to-day  on  this  subject.  The  merit  of  Dr.  Kellogg's  work  is  that  his 
treatment  is  plain  and  straightforward,  and  comprehensively  Christian." 
—  Boston  Herald. 

"...  It  is  a  volume  which  will  well  repay  a  careful  reading."  — 
Churchman. 

"...  The  style  of  the  book  is  remarkably  graphic  in  view  of  the 
character  of  its  theme."  —  Congregationalist. 


MACMILLAN    &    CO., 

112  FOURTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 
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THE  SOTERIOLOGY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

By  William  Porcher  DuBose,  M.A.,  S.T.D.,  Professor  of  Exegesis  in 
the  University  of  the  South.     12mo,  $51.50. 

This  is  a  re-examination  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  Salva- 
tion in  the  light  of  the  facts  of  human  nature  and  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  in  no  sense  polemical,  neither 
advocating  nor  combating  any  special  theory  of  the  Atonement. 
It  is  a  candid  study  of  the  question  de  novo,  conducted  with 
some  degree  of  independence  of  the  letter,  but  with  devout  and 
thorough  synipathy  with  the  spirit  of  Catholic  thought  on  the 
subject. 

In  its  general  scope  it  deals  with  (1)  the  nature  and  meaning 
of  "Salvation,"  (2)  the  work  of  salvation  as  actually  accom- 
plished for  humanity  by  the  Son  of  Man,  and  (3)  the  means  of 
Salvation  in  the  positive  institutions  of  the  Gospel. 

The  work  as  a  whole  is  a  fresh,  and  to  some  extent  novel, 
presentation  of  a  great  subject  which,  while  necessarily  old, 
must  nevertheless  be  always  new. 


"...  The  Church  owes  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  DuBose  for 
bringing  out  into  clear  light  the  New  Testament  meaning  of  the  word 
[salvation].  Its  devout  spiritual  tone  and  earnestness  will  lead  many 
readers  to  more  honest  and  real  thoughts  of  the  meaning  of  salvation, 
whilst  its  original  and  fresh  treatment  of  certain  aspects  of  great 
theological  mysteries  will  stimulate  thouglit.  .  .  .  The  spirit  in  which 
Dr.  DuBose  has  undertaken  his  task  cannot  he  improved  upon.  .  .  . 
The  style  and  expression  also  are  alike  admirable."  —  Churchman. 

"It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  take  up  a  thoroughly  made  book  like 
this,  with  tlie  entire  plan  laid  out,  and  every  part  complete  and  fitted 
to  its  place.  ...  He  takes  hold  of  his  subject  with  a  firm,  manly 
grasp,  and  discusses  it  vigorovisly.  .  .  .  We  find  Dr.  DuBose  eminently 
suggestive;  a  strong,  intelligent,  and  honest  reasoner,  who  grapples 
manfully  with  the  difficulties  of  the  subject,  and  is  always  to  be  read 
both  with  respectful  attention  and  with  profit."  —  Index>endent. 

"The  work  is  scholarly,  clear,  and  able."  —  Boston  Traveller. 


MACMILLAN   &   CO., 

112   FOURTH   AVENUE,    NEW    YORK. 

3 


JUST    PUBLISHED.     12mo.     $1.50. 


THE    CENTRAL   TEACHING 


OF 


JESUS    CHRIST. 


A  STUDY  AND  EXPOSITION 

Of  the  Five  Chapters  of  the  Gospel  According  tc 

St.  John,  xiii.  to  xvii.  Inclusive. 

BY 

THOMAS  DEHANY  BERNARD,  M.A., 

Canon  and  Chancellor  of  Wells, 
author  of 

"  The  Progress  of  Doctrine  in  the  New  Testament." 
Bampton  Lectures,  1864. 


...  In  ranging  through  the  literature  of  the  subject,  I  did 
not  find  that  there  is  any  book  which  does  precisely  what  is 
here  intended.  Certainly  the  student  has  abundant  aids,  both 
exegetical  and  homiletical.  .  .  .  But  I  doubt  whether  there  is 
any  one  book  which  at  once  covers  the  ground  and  is  conter- 
minous with  it;  one  that  treats  it  as  a  whole  in  itself,  in  the 
way  both  of  interpretation  and  reflection.  If  there  be  no  such 
book,  it  is  fit  that  there  should  be  one,  and  of  a  kind  suited  for 
reading  rather  than  for  reference.  Under  this  impression  I 
applied  myself  more  willingly  to  a  task  which  did  not  appear 
to  be  superfluous.  —  From  the  Preface. 


MACMILLAN   &  CO., 

112    FOURTH   AVENUE,    NEW   YORK. 

4 


Date  Due 

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1 

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